Hakan Ateş, CEO of DenizBank, made a very inspirational speech at Mediterranean Summit 2016. He said there has been some points which made recent crisis resilience possible.
Independent Central Bank & Monetary Policy, ending state funding and targeting only inflation (Sovereign securities/bank assets down to 14% in 2015 from 40% in 2002). Floating Exchange Rate Regime, ending state guarantee on exchange rates. Legal and Institutional Reforms such as New Arbitration Law in Turkey. Ambitious Privatization Program & Fiscal Consolidation, a total of $50 bn privatization (2001-2015) and a fiscal discipline of 4.7% primary budget surplus a year (2001-2007) with 3-year economic visibility with Medium Term Plans. Consolidation: 35 of 85 banks have been liquidated, merged or taken under SDIF control, 3 State Banks rehabilitated and IPO’ed. And Diversified loan base: Wholesale share in total lending from 67% to 49% and Retail up to 51% from 33% while the loans to GDP grew from 14% to 56%.
DenizBank financed $200 million in 2016 alone when the sector was in need of financing.
Hakan Ateş also highlighted reforms in progress in 6 main areas prioritized by the government:
- Democracy and Justice
Reforming business courts, a new income tax law, patent law, revising notary system, establishing integrated social support regime…
- Education
Establishing Teachers’ Academy and Higher Education Quality Council, restructuring education faculties, updating education curriculum, revising foreign language education…
- Public Administration
Increasing transparency in public sector, improving the quality of public services, expanding the e-government portal…
- Public Finance
Rationalizing public expenditures, improving tax payers’ rights…
- Transformation in real economy
Making labor market more flexible, improving the labor force skill level, increasing female labor force participation, increasing domestic savings, raising capital productivity…
- Priority transformation programs
DenizBank supports the SMEs in tourism sector, such as small hotels, restaurants and businesses
Enhancing productivity in manufacturing, reducing import dependency, increasing domestic savings…
Mr. Ateş also reported that DenizBank has, as always, full confidence in the tourism sector:
He said that DenizBank provided $3.0 billion of the total of $19 billion loans granted by the banks to the tourism sector.
DenizBank financed $200 million in 2016 alone when the sector was in need of financing.
DenizBank also supported the SMEs in tourism sector, such as small hotels, restaurants and businesses, which can be sorted as below: $500 million financing by DenizBank to the SMEs in Tourism sector. Restructuring the loans in the sector: The restructured loan amount is $ 1.5 billion.
Projects undertaken exclusively for the Tourism Sector
DenizBank provided $3.0 billion of the total of $19 billion loans granted by the banks to the tourism sector.
POS machines to SMEs, which can operate in USD, Euro, GBP, Ruble and Japanese Yen.
More ATMs in the tourism regions (11.8% market share in Antalya and 7.3% in Muğla) to enhance our services to the sector, English, German and Russian menus in the ATMs.
Depositing, withdrawing and exchanging euro, dollar and ruble being possible, Sberbank customers able to withdraw cash from all DenizBank ATMs free of charge.DenizBank makes it possible and facilitating transactions in ruble for tour operators, hotels and individuals, providing advantageous Ruble loans and collaborates with prestigious companies such as Odeon, Pegas, Rixos, AtlasJet, Muna Turizm, Klas Group, Demirkaya Group.
