Turkish banks grow despite global crisis
Posted by meb at March 26th, 2008
Despite the global economic crisis, Turkey’s banks aim to continue hiring new staff and open new branches in the upcoming period. The banks, which have been grabbing the attention of foreign investors with their customer-focused activities in recent years, plan to hire approximately 20,000 people this year.
Considering Turkey’s population, the size of its economy, economic power, per capita deposit and per capita loan figures, the banking sector is still in a development process and it has further growth potential, said Ekrem Keskin, secretary general of The Banks Association of Turkey (TBB). “It is natural that banks desire to continue growing as long as the economy is stable, inflation is in a downtrend, public sector deficit is declining and there is a climate for sustainable growth. Accordingly, banks are making efforts to open new branches and increase the number of staff.”
Branches and staffing:
Yapı Kredi Bank, which is co-owned by Italy’s UniCredit SpA, opened 70 branches last year. It is planning to add an additional 160 branches, and employ another 3,000 people this year. Garanti Bank, which is co-owned by General Electric Co, currently has 592 branches and 14,400 staff. Garanti, which opened 106 branches last year, is aiming to open 158 new branches this year to increase the number of its branches to 750. The bank will also provide additional job opportunities for 2,600 people.
Akbank, the country’s biggest bank by market value, aims to continue opening branches in places with individual, small and medium scale customer potential this year. Having employed 2,700 people last year, the bank envisages keeping up with this trend this year. Ziraat Bank, Turkey’s biggest state bank, which sees 1,100 persons retire each year on average, will add 2,500 staff this year. HSBC, having provided jobs for 1,700 people last year, plans to open 80 new branches. Denizbank plans to open 80 new branches, employing 1,500 people, while Fortis aims to exceed 300 branches by opening 50 new branches, employing an additional 1,564 people. Vakıfbank plans to open approximately 100 new branches and employ 1,000 staff members.
Number of branches for deposit banks, development and investment banks rose by 769 to 7,618 in 2007, compared to 2006 year-end, according to the TBB data. As far as deposit banks are concerned, each bank had 229 branches on average during the period.
According to 2007 data, considering all deposit, development and participation banks, each staff member serves 422 people while each branch serves 8,738 persons. According to European Union data for 2006, the figures are 152 people and 2,183 people respectively. The difference between the EU and Turkey figures is 2.8 times in terms of staff and four times in terms of branches. Bank assets per capita, which was 79,000 euros on average in the European Union, was around 3,700 euros in Turkey in 2006.
Expectations for 2008
Bank New staff New Branch
Yapı Kredi 3,000 160
Akbank 2,700 –
Garanti 2,600 158
Ziraat 2,500 -
HSBC 1,700 80
Denizbank 1,500 80
Fortis 1,564 50
Vakıfbank 1000 100
Finansbank 1,750 70
ING Bank 640 50
Şekerbank 650 25
Source: Turkish Daily News
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