Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. is founded as a charity fund in 1863.It was the first example of a nationally-owned bank in a country that neither had a national banking system nor any adequate capital accumulation for establishing such banking system. The Bank was officially established by the re-organization of the Benefit Funds in 1888. Ziraat Bank today is regarded as both the founder and the natural leader of Turkey’s banking industry.