FINANCE - $158 billion in Turkish funds in offshore accounts

www.todayszaman.com - The amount of money stored in offshore bank accounts by Turkey's wealthiest individuals and businesses is worth $158 billion, says a report by the UK-based financial transparency group Tax Justice Network.

The report, prepared by former chief economist at consulting firm McKinsey and tax haven expert James Henry, tracked the growth in offshore funds around the world and estimates that the $158 billion in non-taxable Turkish funds is part of the staggering $21 trillion to $32 trillion which was held globally by the world's wealthiest individuals and corporations in tax havens at the end of 2010.  (source)

FINANCE - Barwa Bank offering three-year, capital protected Islamic notes

www.gulf-times.com - Barwa Bank is offering a “unique” Shariah-compliant three-year capital protected notes linked to the Turkey and Indonesia equity markets until June 21.
“The Turkey Indonesia Equity Capital Protected Note is an investment opportunity for investors seeking potentially higher returns with 100% capital protection.
The growth is based on the performance of a selected basket of stocks in two high growth emerging markets- Indonesia and Turkey. (source)

FINANCE - Participation Banks form a bridge for intestment

www.yenisafak.com.tr - Savings to finance domestic sources of financing development in Turkey, Emphasizing the importance of increasing the level of Deputy General Manager Retail Banking Finance Semih Alşar Turkey, "Participation banks, on behalf of a major bridge into savings instead of direct investment brings," he said
Participation Bridge to the investment banks
Assistant General Manager of Retail Banking Finance Semih Alşar Turkey, "Our country's economy development and financing of development can be financed with domestic resources to increase the level of savings on behalf of the utmost importance. Intertwined with the corporate sector to work at this point due to participation banks, savings on behalf of direct investment into fulfills an important bridge, "he said. (source)

FINANCE - Turkey is finance Murabaha syndication

www.finansglobal.com - Turkey Finance, with the participation of 15 countries, 29 of the bank provides a new Murabaha syndication.

Turkey according to a statement from Finance, ABC Islamic Bank, HSBC Bank Middle East, Noor Islamic Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Signing Ceremony on May 14 at the Conrad Hotel Syndicated assumed leadership of the consortium to be done.

The statement did not appear in the amount of syndication.  (source)

FINANCE - Baby Steps for Turkey and China - joint approach to Islamic finance/banking could be possible

www.majalla.com -Written by : Nima Khorrami Assl - Trading ties between the two countries improve but remain vulnerable

Only a few months after the Chinese President-in-waiting trip to Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit, the first of its kind in 27 years, is yet another tale of an extraordinary turn of events in the context of Sino-Turku relations which suffered a major setback in 2009.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao; Source: AFP

Today, Ankara and Beijing prefer to put their various differences to rest, and instead utilize their newly found economic and diplomatic might to advance their national interests in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. In other words, China and Turkey have entered a new period of strategic cooperation, the foundation of which was set in stone during the official exchanges by the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in 2010. (source)

FINANCE - Noor Islamic to arrange $1 bln Turkish debt by yr-end - CEO - May apply for Turkish banking license by end of this year

www.reuters.com - (Reuters) - Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank has arranged more than $2 billion of debt transactions in Turkey since the beginning of 2011 and targets a further $1 billion before year-end, its chief executive officer told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.
"There's huge demand for financing in Turkey, mainly in the SME (small and medium enterprises) business. We've done $2 billion...and expect another $1 billion this year," said Hussain Al Qemzi. (source)

FINANCE - Turkey's Bank Asya gets $325 mln dual-currency Islamic loan

www.reuters.com - (Reuters) - Turkish lender Asya Katilim Bankasi (Bank Asya) has secured a $325 million dual-currency syndicated Islamic loan, a statement from Emirates NBD, one of the arranging banks, said on Tuesday.

Late last year, the lender, which offers non-interest banking services adhering to Islamic law, postponed a foray into debt capital markets by delaying a sukuk issue worth up to $300 million.

The syndicated loan comprises a $201 million tranche and a 96.5 million euro segment, and is structured as a murabaha facility. (source)

TRADE and FINANCE - OIC - TOBB head urges Muslim countries to increase economic cooperation

www.todayszaman.com - Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized on Wednesday the importance of taking concrete steps to increase economic cooperation and investments between Muslim countries.

Speaking to participants at the 28th General Assembly meeting of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) in İstanbul, Hisarcıklıoğlu described the transformation taking place in global politics and economics, as well as developments in the Middle East and North Africa. “As private sector representatives from our countries, we have a major role to take on. Our countries are full of entrepreneurs who are looking for investment opportunities,” he said. (source)

FINANCE - TOBB says to take Islamic businesspeople to N.Cyprus

www.worldbulletin.net - ICCI's 28th General Assembly meetings will take place in Istanbul between April 8 and 11.

Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) will take businesspeople from Islamic countries to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

The Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), as an organization linked to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), brings together chambers of trade and industry, unions and federations from 57 countries. (source)

FINANCE - Bank Asya to offer SME loans worth TL 2.5 bln

www.todayszaman.com - Bank Asya Marketing Manager Murat Demir announced in a meeting over the weekend that the financial institution will start handing out more loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), for a total of TL 2.5 billion in 2012.

Bank Asya, a leading participation bank in Turkey, aims to support the financing of SMEs with these loans. Emphasizing that SME loans make up 34 percent of all loans offered by the bank, Demir said they have 170,000 customers, and the majority of loans are given to the construction, manufacturing, health, food and metal sectors. Demir explained that businesses usually get medium-term loans and use them for raw materials, intermediate goods and other products. He also said businesses in the Marmara, Central Anatolia and Southeastern Anatolia regions have mostly applied for these loans. (source)

FINANCE - Turkish Retailer A101 Set To Clinch Sale To Private Equity - Sources

www.nasdaq.com - LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Turkish retailer A101 Yeni Magazacilik AS is set to clinch a sale to private equity highlighting a continued interest in the country's retail sector, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.
Capital Group is frontrunner for the business which has attracted several other buyout firms including TPG, Investcorp and Permira, one person said. (source)

FINANCE - Turkish Bank Asya gears up for syndicated loan

www.m2.com - 1 March 2012 - Turkish lender Asya Katilim Bankasi AS is seeking to get a syndicated Islamic loan that could be denominated in various currencies, the bank said in a bourse filing yesterday.

In particular, Asya plans to draw a one-year loan worth the equivalent of USD200m (EUR150m). (source)

FINANCE - İstanbul’s bid to become IFC looks cloudy as progress continues to delay

www.todayszaman.com - The hope that İstanbul will become an international financial center (IFC) in the near future has been disappearing as progress on the project has been slow in many respects.

 

The long-overdue project has been talked about for years by many politicians and has remained music to the ears of society. In 2007, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government set about developing İstanbul into an IFC as one of its major long-term economic goals. Steps taken by the current ruling party has many ordinary citizens believing it would be accomplished; however, some experts argue that the achievement of such a goal in the near future is a dream due to a lack of necessary policies and regulations. (source)

BANKING - Global bank hub SWIFT ready to cut off Iran

www.cbsnews.com - BRUSSELS - An international banking clearinghouse crucial to Iran's oil sales said Friday that it is preparing to discontinue services to Iranian financial institutions, an unprecedented and potentially devastating blow to Tehran as the West ramps up a campaign to stop its nuclear program.
The statement by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, suggests that the European Union — under pressure from Washington — is close to approving regulations that will require the Brussels-based hub to evict Iranian institutions from its ranks. (source)

FINANCE - Turkish Bank in Spotlight for Iran Deals as Sanctions Tighten

www.wsj.com - ISTANBUL—Amid tightening U.S. and European Union sanctions against Iran, almost all of Turkey's banks have stopped handling trade deals with the Islamic Republic, leaving one Turkish lender to rake in all that business: state-owned Halkbank.

Washington passed sanctions in January threatening to penalize financial institutions dealing with Iran's central bank, forcing Turkey's private lenders to halt transactions with Tehran for fear of being frozen out of international markets. U.S. Treasury officials visited Turkey several times last year to advise financial institutions that doing business with proscribed Iranian entities runs the risk of being frozen out of the U.S. financial system. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - TRADE - FINANCE - Turkey offers Gulf ‘perfect match-up’

www.hurriyetdailynews.com - Trade between Turkey and the Gulf offer more than the energy business, say Turkish ministers. Turkey’s plans include restoring a historic rail line to the Gulf

TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu (R) presents Finance Minister Şimşek (C) with a gift at the Turkey-Gulf Business Forum. AA photo (source)

FINANCE - OIC - Turkey's Halkbank to handle Iran payments so long as legal

www.todayszaman.com - Turkish lender Halkbank will continue to handle customers' oil payments to Iran as long as they comply with international regulations, the bank's general manager said in the wake of fresh, unilateral US and EU sanctions.

Halkbank's dealings with Iran drew attention last year when Indian refiners disclosed they were channeling oil payments through the Turkish bank as their own central bank had shut its payment facility, fearing US retribution.

Majority state-owned Halkbank is Turkey's sixth largest bank, based on unconsolidated assets, and has a representative office in Tehran. (source)

FINANCE - OIC - Turkey to follow only UN sanctions against Iran

www.worldbulletin.net - Turkey’s largest oil refinery in Tüpraş relies on Iranian crude oil, and has been refreshing agreements with Iran for decades.  - Diplomatic sources have announced that Ankara will not be affected by the new set of sanctions on Iran, announced by the EU to cut all imports of Iranian crude oil to the EU bloc, on the grounds that Turkey will follow only UN-led sanctions.

“Turkey in principle feels bound only by UN Security Council sanctions against third countries,” diplomatic sources told Cihan on Monday, shortly after the EU governments agreed that they would ban all new contracts to purchase oil from Tehran. (source)

FINANCE - TRADE - Turkey, Iran Agree To Raise Bilateral Trade To $30 Billion

www.rttnews.com - Turkey seeks to double bilateral trade with neighboring Iran to $30 billion by 2015, a move aimed at strengthening ties with the Islamic Republic despite the new round of Western sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance.

"Iran and Turkey's relations saw a 70 percent rise in 2011 and I hope that new steps will be taken within the framework of the Joint Commission to help increase the trade volume to $30 billion in 2015," Turkey's Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar told a joint economic meeting held in capital Ankara on Thursday. (source)

BANKING - Turkish Islamic Banks Gave Mostly Construction Loans

(Corrects story yesterday to show Yahsi is CEO of Albaraka Turk, not Asya Katilim in the second paragraph.)

Turkey’s Islamic banks gave most loans to construction companies and will continue lending to Turkish firms this year, Sabah reported. (source)