Halk Bankası

Expert Jonathan Schanzer, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Senior Vice President for Research, joins Thanos Davelis to look into the Supreme Court decision this week that the Turkish state-owned Halkbank remains subject to criminal prosecution in US courts for conspiring to evade US sanctions against Iran.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given Türkiye's state-owned lender Halkbank another chance to avoid criminal charges in the United States for allegedly helping Iran evade American economic sanctions, but rejected a key defense mounted by the bank.

Turkish state-owned lenders have created an extra credit volume of 27.5 billion Turkish Liras (about $4 billion) in the last 10 days, the head of the country's banking watchdog has said, criticizing the private banks for the contraction of their credit pool some 5 billion liras ($737.2 million) in the same period.

Turkish state lender Halkbank will be arraigned in a U.S. court next week to face a federal indictment for alleged evading Iran sanctions.

The bank was represented by the law firm of King & Spalding at a hearing on Feb. 25 and attorneys said it agreed to appear at the proceedings.

Halkbank was charged in October with attempts to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.

A U.S. appeals court in Manhattan granted Turkish state lender Halkbank a temporary pause in its Iran sanctions evasion case.

The temporary stay in the case was granted on Feb. 3 to allow for the bank's requests to be heard by a three-judge panel.
The court said it would take up Halkbank's requests on an expedited basis.

A racehorse belonging to Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian businessman who was arrested in the U.S. in 2016 over evading sanctions on Iran, had to leave his champion-style life in a hippodrome to live a more modest life on a simple ranch on the outskirts of Istanbul.

Turkey's state-owned Halkbank has denied any wrongdoing after U.S. prosecutors charged the lender with partaking in a scheme to evade U.S sanctions on Iran.

Three state-owned banks, namely Ziraat, Halkbank and Vakıfbank, have provided a total of 1.7 billion Turkish Liras worth of loans to 11,500 local firms under the financing package named "İVME" (advanced, productive, indigenous, industry) as of end-July.

Turkish lender Halkbank on June 12 added a new branch to its network in Serbia, where it already has a widespread presence.

Turkey's Halkbank has become the third state bank to declare a low-interest rate campaign for citizens to pay off their credit card debts.