The corporate history of Isbank reflects the history of the foundation and development of our country. In the late 1990s Isbank initiated the project of recording this history to pass it on to future generations. The Isbank Museum that was inaugurated on November 14, 2007 as a part of this project.
In the preparatory stage of the museum, documents, photos, films and objects that had been accumulated in the archives of the bank across Turkey since 1924 were collected, restored and taken under protection. The Yenicami Branch of the bank housed in a historical building was chosen to safeguard this rich archive.
The building that housed this branch, which was inaugurated as the Post Office of İstanbul on September 23, 1892, began to serve as a branch of the bank under the name Istanbul Branch as from February 20, 1928. In the 1950s the branch was renamed into Yenicami Branch, which served the clientele under this name until 2004. After a process of renovation the building now contributes to the cultural life of Istanbul as a museum.
The first and basement floors of the three-storied museum building house the permanent exhibition. The exhibition in the first floor consists of materials all specific to Isbank selected from the rich archive of the bank such as documents and photos reflecting the social and economic life, devices used in banking operations in diverse periods including typewriters and calculators, money-boxes, promotional materials, advertisement films etc. The fixed furnishings used in the bank branch such as the historical bank counters, and the rooms that house the main vault and safe-deposit boxes are open to the public in the ground floor and basement. The temporary exhibitions are held in the ground floor of the Museum.
As from 2011 the Isbank Museum organises workshops for pupils and students, which have attracted an intense interest among pupils and students with a participation of more than 100 thousand students up to now. These workshops predominantly aim at creating awareness with respect to saving money and financial literacy.
With its collections exhibited in two floors of the building in which the museum is housed, Isbank Museum welcomes the public all the year round. The permanent exhibition begins at the first hall in the upper floor of the building. Here in eight successive halls the visitors can have an idea of the history of Isbank as old as the Republic of Turkey in a chronological order.
