Turkey's biggest private bank is getting a new boss.
Hakan Aran is leaving his job as CEO of Turkiye Is Bankasi, commonly known as Isbank, at the end of the month, and deputy CEO Hasan Cahit Cinar is set to take over.
Bloomberg first reported the move on Friday, and Isbank confirmed it after the market closed. The change still needs a green light from regulators, so Cinar's appointment is not final yet.
Aran is not stepping away from the business world. He is becoming board chairman of Turkiye Sise ve Cam Fabrikalari AS.
He also knows Isbank from the inside. Aran trained as a computer engineer and started at the bank in 1990, eventually reaching the top job in 2021.
That is a long climb, and it means he has seen the bank from more than one angle.
Aran's time in the CEO chair came with strong numbers. During his tenure, Isbank shares rose more than 12-fold, beating Turkey's main stock index, the BIST 100, which gained almost 10-fold in lira terms.
That is a meaningful gap for anyone with money in Turkish assets. The stock did not just ride the market's wave; it outran it.
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Isbank has the size to make that kind of performance count. It is Turkey's biggest private lender by total assets and the country's oldest private bank, dating to 1924.
The bank is also a major lender to small and medium-sized businesses.
Those are the companies that often feel the pinch first when credit tightens, so the bank's health matters beyond its own shareholders.
In other words, when Isbank does well, it is not just a bonus for shareholders. The companies that borrow from it feel the effect too.
Cinar has been deputy CEO since last year, but he is not new to the role.
He first became deputy CEO in 2018, then had a two-year stint at the subsidiary Trakya Yatirim Holding AS before coming back to Isbank.
That path gives him a view of both the bank and its wider network. It also means the transition comes with someone who already knows the routines.
He is not walking into an unknown building.
If regulators approve, he steps into a role held by a CEO whose stock-market record has set a high bar.
Leadership changes at big banks always raise questions. But this handover comes with a familiar face, and the bank's basic business has not changed.
That business stays in place no matter who sits in the corner office.
The bottom line: The next milestone is the date when regulators approve Cinar. After that, the focus turns to him and whether he can keep Isbank's momentum going.
The first few months under Cinar will tell a lot about whether the bank stays on the path Aran set.
The answer matters to anyone with Turkish assets, and it matters even more to the small and medium-sized businesses that lean on Isbank for financing.
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