According to Ersin Özince, director general of Turkey’s biggest publicly traded lender İşbank, Turkey has developed a liberal and inviting attitude towards foreign banks willing to operate in the local market.
“If we consider how long we waited before opening a single branch even in Turkey’s brother country Azerbaijan where the process was relatively easy, we can understand how much we have been liberal and inviting just by observing the number of foreign lenders operating in the Turkish market,” said Özince, speaking to Anatolia news agency in an interview Wednesday. “It is a good thing; we should take into consideration every factor – including this sense of reciprocity.”
“As an example for the kind reception shown by Turkey, there are some very prestigious foreign banks operating in Turkey today,” Özince said. “But, I do not think that Europe and the United States show the same kind of reception to Turkish banks. On the contrary, they treat our banks as ‘strangers.’ But in Turkey, people use all the foreign banks without any distinction. We do not have limits like them.”
Branches in each of the Balkan countries
Özince said İşbank was continuing its foreign operations, adding that it aims to open branches in every country in Turkey’s regional neighborhood.
“Country authorities do not have a positive approach towards opening branches. But, we can not buy a bank in each of the countries and collect an assortment. We are aiming to open branches in the Balkan countries, from Bosnia to Albania and from Macedonia to Ukraine.”
“We have already applied to Azerbaijan and we believe that by opening new branches in Baku and Nakhchivan, İşbank will provide a great contribution to the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
İşbank is also planning to open branches in Iraq, Syria and the Gulf region. “By the end of next year, I think there will be a broader representation of İşbank in the region compared to today.”
15 percent growth target
Reiterating that İşbank aims to grow by nearly 15 percent this year, Özince said that the bank could achieve this target given the growth figures of the first six months.
“During the first half of the year, the asset growth of the banks has been approximately 9.5 percent. If the country’s economy and banking sector doesn’t suffer any significant problems, the bank could certainly attain the 15 percent growth target by the end of the year.”
As of August this year, İşbank had recruited a higher than expected 1,700 people, Özince said, adding that the banks total number of branches has increased from last years 1,093 to today’s toal of 1,122.
Regarding the banks investments, Özince said that İşbank has an investment budget of more than 300 million Turkish Liras and one of their subsidiaries, Turkey’s biggest glass-producer Şişecam, which has production facilities in three continents, has a budget two times this amount, Özince said adding, “Our investment budget is nearly 1 billion liras every year,” Özince said.
‘Exchange rate against China’
“I think Turkey is currently experiencing a relatively good administration financial period. I believe Turkey has now reached a certain level of maturity,” Özince said.
Commenting on the fiscal rule, Özince said that whether you say fiscal rule or the International Monetary Fund’s rules, the policies that would affect Turkey’s macroeconomic expectations needed to be clear and unsurprising. “These are the factors that will contribute the future stability of the country.”
Regarding the exchange rate and the overvalued lira, Özince said that 85 percent of the foreign trade deficit is due to a single country: China. “I think we should develop an exchange rate against China,” he said. “We come up against competition with China when we sell our products even in the domestic market. This problem can not be solved with the change of exchange.
“I think that being proactive and using any kind of policy is necessary in reference to the exchange rate. It is not correct to reduce the issue only to the exchange rate. Economic policy is a complex total of individual parts, and competition strategy is the most important part. My only worry is that our competition capacity is declining. Turkey should find a solution to the problem of not being competitive enough,” he added.
