Ziraat Bank

The Istanbul Financial Center (IFC) will open on April 17, Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum has said.

A ceremony will be held to deliver houses in the Fikirtepe neighborhood to be attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kurum said during a visit in Istanbul.

While the disruption in grain shipments to world markets due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis led to a worldwide threat of famine, Türkiye's diplomatic efforts helped prevent the problem, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 6.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Aug. 12 inaugurated Türkiye's largest-ever university library, featuring 1 million volumes of printed books on its shelves and seating for up to 3,000 people.

Home sales are expected to receive a boost following state-lenders' decision to slash interest rates, according to representatives from the sector.

After the Central Bank's decision last week to reduce the key policy rate by 200 basis points, three state-owned lenders, namely Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and Vakıfbank, this week cut interest rates on loans, including housing loans.

The total assets of Turkish state-owned lender Ziraat's have exceeded 1 trillion Turkish Liras ($114.3 billion), its CEO, Alpaslan Çakar, said during a parliamentary commission session on June 17.

"It is seen that we have given support to the economy with loans worth 743 billion liras [$84.9 billion]," he told members of the committee on public enterprises.

The Turkish Banking Association (TBB) on April 21 elected Alpaslan Çakar, the general manager of Ziraat Bank, as its new chairman.

In a statement, TBB said elections for the chairman of the board of directors and vice chairman were held at the board meeting.

Arda Ermut has been appointed as the new general manager of the Turkey Wealth Fund (TWF) after Zafer Sönmez was dismissed, according to the Official Gazette early on March 9.

Fishermen will be rewarded with 5 Turkish Liras (60 cents) for every tail of toadfish, which is an invasive species growing rapidly in the Aegean and the Mediterranean Seas, they bring to support biodiversity, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry announced on Dec. 1.

The Turkish Wealth Fund (TWF) announced late on May 11 that it will raise the core capital of three state lenders.

"To strengthen capital structures and support the adequacy of Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakıfBank, we have launched the necessary works to raise core capitals by a total of 21 billion Turkish liras [some $3 billion]," the TWF said in a statement.

Turkish state lenders announced a financial support package on March 25in line with the government measures to limit the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Three conventional banks - Ziraat, Halk, Vakıf - and two participation lenders - Ziraat Katılım and Vakıf Katılım - made public their package applicable for all enterprises.