Turkey's Ziraat's issues in New York come from technologic issues: CEO

Ziraat Bank CEO Hüseyin Ayd?n has refuted some reports that claim "some banking transactions were audited in the bank's New York branch upon some concerns about the violation of money laundering or compliance regulations. 

He said the New York branch of the Fed found out that the data processing systems of Ziraat's New York branch did not comply with customer information standards so the authority asked for the renewal of the system after a series of reviews back in 2009. He added that such reviews are made across the globe. 

"Our branch signed a deal in a pledge to renew the system. We needed to make it until 2013, but we failed. We sent our friends to discuss the issue back again. We then said, 'We made such a promise, but we failed. We have few customers. Please, monitor our system again. We'll renew it immediately at this time.' The Fed New York accepted our offer and initiated fresh reviews in 2015. We have not received any document that showed our operations do not comply with international norms," said Ayd?n, who is also the president of the Banks' Association of Turkey. 

He said the existing technologic deficiencies were handled, at a meeting with journalists on March 26 in the northwestern province of Bursa for the Uluda? Economy Summit. 

"Ziraat Bank operates in all parts of the world in accordance with the international standards as a leading Turkish brand. Some reports, which suggested that Ziraat Bank did something that it actually didn't, have negatively affected our brand value," he added. 

Ayd?n noted that their New York branch mainly focuses on corporate banking.

He also said foreign hackers recently launched a number of cyber-attacks against Turkish banks by creating e-mail traffic.