Turkey Financial News

Posted by meb at November 29th, 2008

The French Development Agency (AFD) signed an agreement with Denizbank yesterday in İstanbul to provide 80 million euros in long-term credit to support municipal projects around the country.

Under the structure of the agreement, Denizbank will have to repay the credit within 12 years, and disbursements to various municipal governments need to be made over a four-year period. The financing is to go towards water, waste transportation and sanitation projects. The criteria on which financing will be provided will have a heavy focus on ecological components.

Significantly, the project specifies that a minimum of 60 percent of the 80 million euro credit will be allocated to smaller municipalities, which are often overlooked by financing projects. The agreement further stipulates that the maximum amount that is to be spent per project is 5 million euros, so as to maximize the number of projects that are to benefit. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 26th, 2008

Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank will provide 700 to 750 million YTL ($445- 480 million) to the economy, Bank Chief Executive Huseyin Aydin said on Wednesday.

The bank would secure $200 million of funding from the World Bank and 300 million euros from the European Investment Bank and had already used 80 million euros from the French development agency, Aydin said at Ankara Chamber of Commerce meeting.

Halkbank had earlier this month announced that it would loan 1.5 billion ($900 million) to Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) during the coming period following the government’s decision to supply low-cost credit to small businesses. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 25th, 2008

Thanks to its solid banking system, Turkey is a substantial financial market despite a difficult global environment, according to Clare Dawson, executive director of the Loan Market Association. But funding from Europe will be increasingly harder

Turkish banks are considered safe and reputable players in world markets despite the current financial turmoil, according to the Loan Market Association of London.

The Loan Market Association, or LMA, founded in 1996 by seven leading banks in London, organized a training event regarding the current conditions of the European loan markets and their activities.

The association, which has over 400 members including banks, law firms, institutional investors and information providers, aims to encourage liquidity and efficiency in loan markets by promoting market depth and transparency, developing standard forms of documentation and codes of market practice. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 24th, 2008

Numerous banks are dismissing employees to slash costs amid the global financial crisis, with some filing for bankruptcy, but the banking industry in Turkey is continuing to move forward without losing pace.

Figures from the Turkish Banks Association (TBB) indicate that the number of bank offices and branches throughout Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) increased by 926 to 8,544, with the number of bank workers edging up to 170,425 — including 11,891 new recruitments — in the first nine months of this year. The only news overshadowing this healthy picture occurred when Akbank laid off close to 1,700 workers last week. Although Akbank has officially declined to confirm the dismissals, anonymous sources from the bank said the job cuts had nothing to do with the crisis but were taken as part of a wider restructuring plan. (more…)

Posted by meb at November 20th, 2008

The global credit crunch is also affecting Turkish banks, as they restructure and try to curb borrowing. Banks expect to pay a spread of about 2 percent over the London Interbank Offered Rate, as lending from Europe becomes increasingly harder. Meanwhile, three executives of Akbank step down.

As a recent report on the Turkish banking sector outlines the challenges brought in by the global financial crisis, banks are trying to adapt, restructure and trying to curb foreign borrowing in the face of rising lending rates.

The near-term outlook for Turkish banks is ’challenging,’ according to a report released by Fitch Ratings on Tuesday. Though international funding and foreign exchange risks are well contained, there are some significant risks for Turkish banks in this period of global de-leveraging, a deteriorating global economic growth outlook and scarce funding, Fitch said in its report. These risks include “the negative impact of the expected economic slowdown and the impact of rapid loan growth on asset quality, capitalization and profitability.” (more…)

Posted by meb at October 31st, 2008

A decision for unlimited government guarantees on deposits in banks should be taken when deemed necessary and there is no need at the moment for such a decision, the CEO of Garanti Bank said on Friday.

“It is a very important discussion whether to implement (full guarantee on deposits) or not. Therefore I think (the government) made the preparations and put it in its pocket. They will disclose it when needed but I don’t think we would need it,” Ergun Ozen told HotNewsTurkey on the sidelines at the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia meetings in Istanbul.

He added that if such a decision is taken they, as Garanti Bank, would not object to it. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 23rd, 2008

Turkish banks are starting to feel the effects of a tightening global credit market and will find it difficult to get long-term credit from abroad, the chief executive of Is Bank said on Tuesday.

“Liquidity is tightening. It will be nearly impossible for the Turkish banking sector to find long term credit from abroad,” Chief Executive Ersin Ozince told CNBC-e in an interview.

Ozince said the ongoing crisis was the biggest he faced until now, and it was not easy to forecast when it would come to an end. (more…)

Posted by meb at September 6th, 2008

Akbank, Yapı Kredi and İşbank were downgraded by JPMorgan Chase &Co., which cited high interest rates and lower business volumes during the Ramadan holiday season.

Akbank and Yapı Kredi were lowered to “neutral” from “overweight” and İşbank, Turkey’s biggest listed lender, was cut to “underweight” from “neutral,” analysts, including Paul Formanko, wrote in a note to clients dated Friday. (more…)