Halkbank aims to grow in personal banking
Posted by meb at February 25th, 2008
Hüseyin Aydın, the general manager of state-controlled Halkbank, has said the bank will continue to provide services for small and medium sized-enterprises (SME) while also improving personal banking services and focusing on overall growth.
In an interview with the Anatolia news agency Aydın said they will be involved with every project related to SMEs. He said they will train bank employees and loan officers on SME banking, focusing on corporate and social responsibility.
Aydın said they have more than 600 branches and that the pensions of 1.5 million retirees are being paid thru Halkbank, adding that they wanted to expand their personal banking services. He said they are cooperating with HSBC on credit cards and aim to grow in credit card markets but are not making aggressive moves in the sector. Aydın also noted that they are planning to grow by increasing profitability and efficiency in their operations. Aydın pointed out that they had signed an 80 million euro agreement with the French Development Agency (AFD) for small business financing, which is very important for SMEs in Turkey.
Aydın stated that the biggest problem in Turkey in financing projects is having to make medium or long-term investments with short-term loans. “The repayments of the investors start before they finish their factory construction,” he cited as an example.
Regarding the privatization of the bank, Aydın said the Privatization Administration (ÖİB) is conducting the preliminary technical studies and that ÖİB is the final decision maker on the privatization. Aydın said they are in talks with the Housing Development Administration of Turkey (TOKİ) over building its headquarters in the west of Ataşehir district in İstanbul.
source: Today’s Zaman
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