Azerbaijan, Baku, April 11 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
The Azerbaijani Central Bank (CBA) is ready to consider the appeals of Turkish banks wishing to join the banking market of the country, CBA chairman Elman Rustamov told the media on Wednesday.
"We support banks with great potential and good ratings, as our concern is in the rendering of banking services and business financing to the Azerbaijani people," he said. "We are ready to consider these appeals."
It was previously reported that two Turkish largest banks - İs Bankası and Garanti Bankasi AS are interested in entering the Azerbaijani banking market.
İs Bankası is considering various ways of joining the market - by establishing a new bank, opening a branch or purchasing an existing bank in the country. At present, the Turkish bank is negotiating the purchase of a stake in Azerbaijani Rabita Bank and a number of other banks.
Garanti Bankasi intends to intensify its activity in the Azerbaijani market in the medium term, as the Turkish bank focuses on regional expansion, executive vice president of the bank Ebru Dildar Edin told Trend earlier.
She said that Garanti Bankasi will not do anything on the matter in the near future (six months to a year).
Founded in 1924, Is Bankasi is the largest private bank in Turkey in terms of assets. It has made a significant contribution to the development of the Turkish economy for many years. The bank has 1,194 branches in Turkey with 24,788 employees. The bank also has 12 branches in Germany and one each in France, Holland, Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Garanti Bank is the second largest commercial bank in Turkey in terms of assets. It was established in 1947. The bank has 921 branches in Turkey and five branches in Northern Cyprus and one each in Malta and Luxembourg. The bank has representative offices in London, Dusseldorf and Shanghai.