Azerbaijan, Baku, May 14 / Trend A.Tagiyeva /
Italian Intesa Sanpaolo SpA bank which is one of the largest banking groups in the euro area, obtained the permission from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) to operate in the country, BDDK reported in its statement posted on its official website on Tuesday.
According to the statement, the bank is going to start its activity in Turkey by opening a branch bank in this country. The initial capital of the branch bank in Turkey will be $300 million nominated in Turkish lira.
Earlier permission to open a branch was granted to Lebanese Audi bank and Japanese The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Bank Intesa Sanpaolo SpA was established in 1998 with the merger of the Cariplo and Banco Ambrosiano Veneto banks. As of December 31, 2012, the total amount of assets of the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group was €673.472 million. The market capitalisation of the bank is estimated at €18.6 billion (as of March 28, 2013).
Intesa Sanpaolo is the leader in Italy in all business areas and ranks first in terms of provided loans (with a market share of 15.8 per cent), deposit portfolio (16.8 per cent), assets (23.7 per cent), leasing operations (17.6 per cent), and factoring operations (33.3 per cent).
Outside of Italy the bank has more than 1900 offices that serve about 8.5 million customers and provide retail and commercial banking services in 30 countries around the world including those in the Middle East and North Africa as well as countries where Italian companies are most active such as the United States, Russia, China and India.