Yapı Kredi to open 160 branches
Posted by meb at February 20th, 2008
Yapı Kredi, the Turkish lender co-owned by Italy’s UniCredit SpA, aims to open 160 new branches this year with particular focus on Anatolian provinces.
“2008 is the bank‘s first year to be focused completely on growth. During 2007, after launching our expansion project in July we opened 82 new branches. Our goal is to have 1,000 branches by the end of 2009,” Tayfun Bayazıt, executive director and general manager of Yapı Kredi, said Monday.
Test of maturity
Mustafa Koç, chairman of the Koç Group, told the Turkish Daily News the main challenge for Yapı Kredi this year will be competition in the Turkish banking sector. “Our main challenge in 2008 is tightening competition in the banking sector. Our competitors are aggressive and active and this makes our task complicated. We aim to move two to three places up in the ranking of the sector, which will be challenging but I believe we can achieve this,” he said.
Koç also noted he believes the Turkish financial industry to be largely resistant to the potential global economic slowdown. “In this time when global economic indicators have shifted in a negative direction, especially with the U.S.-based mortgage crisis, and markets have gone into a turmoil, I believe the Turkish economy has passed, and is still passing, a test of maturity,” Koç said. “The finance industry in Turkey has obtained a sturdy structure that is resistant to crises and also has an important asset size,” he added.
No damage from turmoil
Bayazıt noted the Turkish banking sector is unlikely to be notably affected by the slowdown in comparison to nearby countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan. “Turkey has a higher credit rating than Russia and Kazakhstan but a lower risk rating than these countries. Therefore the local banking sector will not be that affected by the slowdown,” he said.
But he also noted the shortage of liquidity, the possibility of a recession in the United States driven by shrinkage in loans and a slowdown in Europe have increased risks.
“In 2008 inflation in Turkey can fall to 6.1 percent provided that no global shocks are experienced and the increase in prices of international goods comes to a halt. We expect total loans volume in Turkey to increase by 25 percent and consumer loans to increase by 38 percent industry-wide in 2008,” Bayazıt added.
Source: Turkish Daily News
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