Independent Assurance Report

(Convenience translation of an integrated annual report and non-financial independent assurance report originally issued in Turkish)

Independent Assurance Report

To the Management of Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi Turk Anonim Ortakligi

Istanbul, Turkiye

This report is intended solely for the management of Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi Turk Anonim Ortakligi (hereinafter ‘VakifBank’ or ‘the Bank’) for the purpose of reporting on The Selected Sustainability Information (‘Selected Information’) for VakifBank in its 2022 Integrated Annual Report (hereinafter ‘the Integrated Annual Report 2022’) that has been prepared by the Bank for the one-year period from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.

Subject Matter Information and Applicable Criteria

In line with the request of the VakifBank, our responsibility is to provide limited assurance in accordance with the Selected Indicators listed below within the scope of Annex 5: 2022 Integrated Annual Report Reporting Guideline (“Reporting Guideline”) between pages 512-517 of the 2022 Integrated Annual Report.

The Scope of Our Assurance

The scope of our assurance is limited to the indicators listed in the Selected Information list shown below, which are reported as operational indicators, social indicators and environmental indicators and marked with √ on pages 61, 75, 82, 87, 112, 115, 117, 122, 125, 128, 131, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516 and 517 of the Integrated Annual Report 2022.

Financial And Operational Indicators

• Total loans amount extended to SMEs (TRY),
• Numbers of renewable energy projects financed by the Bank, Amount of financing provided (TRY) and total installed capacity (MW),
• Increase in the number of Digital Banking Customers (number of customers)

Social Indicators

• Ratio of female employees (%),
• Number of employees in managing bodies (manager and higher level) (number of people),
• Ratio of female employees returning to work after maternity leave (%),
• Number of employees benefiting from maternity leave (person),
• The number of employees returning to work after maternity leave (person),
• Number of people who return to work after maternity leave and still work after 12 months (person),
• Average of seniority years in the breakdown of men and women (years),
• Filling rate of top positions with internal promotion (%),
• Employee turnover rate (ratio),
• Number of disabled employees (persons),
• Total training hours (hours),
• Average training hours per employee (hours),
• Ratio of online training in total training hours (%)
• Incident rate (ratio),
• Occupational disease rate (ratio),
• Lost days rate in all facilities (%),
• Absence Rate (%).

Environmental Indicators

• Energy consumption (electricity, natural gas, lignite, gasoline, diesel, heating fuel) (GJ)
• Water consumption (m3)
• Amount of waste recycled (tonnes)
• Paper consumption (tonnes)
• Total yearly Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions (natural gas, lignite, gasoline, diesel, heating fuel, refrigerant gases and fire extinguishers) (tonnes of CO2e)
• Total yearly Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions Electricity (market-based), electricity (location) (tonnes of CO2e)
• Total yearly Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions (personnel service, business flights, paper use and disposal, tap water consumption, drinking water consumption, waste (paper, plastic, glass, metal, waste oil) and cargo shipments) (tonnes of CO2e)
• Carbon emission per surface area (Scope 1 and Scope 2) (kg CO2e/m2)
• Energy consumption per employee (GJ/employee)

The VakifBank’s Responsibilities

The Bank’s management is responsible for the preparation, collection and presentation of the Selected Information. In addition, the Bank’s management is responsible for ensuring that the documentation provided to the practitioner is complete and accurate. The Bank’s management is also responsible for maintaining the internal control system that reasonably ensures that the documentation and information described above is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error.

Our Responsibilities

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with the Assurance Engagement Standard (AES) 3000 and 3410 which is a part of the Turkish Auditing Standards as issued by the Public Oversight Accounting and Auditing Standards Authority of Türkiye (POA). These regulations require that we comply with the ethical standards and plan and perform our assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance about the Selected Information.

We have complied with the independence and other ethical requirements of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA Code), which is founded on fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behavior.

Our firm applies the International Standard on Quality Control 1 and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature and timing from and are less in extent than for a reasonable assurance engagement. Consequently, the level of assurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed. Our procedures were designed to obtain a limited level of assurance on which to base our conclusion and do not provide all the evidence that would be required to provide a reasonable level of assurance.

The procedures selected depend on the practitioner’s judgment. The procedures include, in particular, inquiry of the personnel responsible for collecting and reporting on the Selected Information and additional procedures aimed at obtaining evidence about the Selected Information.

Procedures Applied

In respect of the Selected Information mentioned above the procedures performed include the following procedures:

1. Interviewed select key senior personnel of the VakifBank to understand the current processes in place for capturing the Selected Information pertaining to the reporting period;
2. Reviewed Selected Information with online communications covering VakifBank locations; as well as reviewed pertaining to the VakifBank’s other locations in Türkiye, against evidence, on a sample basis;
3. Undertook substantive testing, on a sample basis, of the Selected Information;
4. Used the VakifBank’s internal documentation to evaluate and measure the Selected Information;
5. Evaluated the design and implementation of key processes and controls over the Selected Information;
6. Re-performed, on a sample basis, calculations used to prepare the Selected Information for the reporting period.
7. Evaluated the disclosure and presentation of the Selected Information in the Report.

Our Conclusion

Based on the procedures performed and evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the VakifBank has not prepared, in all material respects with Selected Information for the year ended 31 December 2022 did not meet the relevant requirements of the Reporting Guidelines in respect of all material matters.

Limitations

We permit this report to be disclosed in VakifBank’s Integrated Annual Report for the year ended 31 December 2022, to enable the management of VakifBank to show they have addressed their governance responsibilities by obtaining an independent assurance report in connection with the Selected Information. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we accept or assume no responsibility and deny any liability to any party other than the VakifBank for our work, for this independent limited assurance report, or for the conclusions we have reached.

Guney Bagimsiz Denetim ve Serbest Muhasebeci Mali Musavirlik Anonim Sirketi

A member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited

Zeynep Okuyan Özdemir, SMMM

Partner

3 March 2023

Istanbul, Turkiye