After attending the Galatasaray high school in Istanbul, he studied Economics at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and earned his BS degree in 1979.
Later that year he moved to the Foreign Relations department, being responsible for balance of payments and international institutions.
Serdengeçti was appointed as the 20th Governor of the Central Bank by the coalition government on 14 March 2001, succeeding Gazi Erçel, who had resigned.
The Turkish government announced an economic program on 14 April 2001, called the Derviş program, Kemal Derviş being then the Minister of State responsible for the economy, and the parliament amended the central bank law on 25 April 2001 and gave autonomy to the Central Bank of Turkey.
These steps and a new monetary policy enabled Serdengeçti to better deal with chronic instability issues in the Turkish economy.