Iranian Banks to Open Branches in Turkey

Iranian Banks to Open Branches in Turkey

TEHRAN (FNA)- Two Iranian banks have reportedly applied to do business in Turkey, the Turkish media said on Wednesday.

The media in Turkey have reported that two Iranian lenders have applied to do business in the Turkish market.

“We have taken demands from Iranian banks. Two Iranian lenders want to take banking license in Turkey,” reports have quoted Mehmet Ali Akben, the head of Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, as saying.

Akben, who did not name the Iranian banks, has further emphasized that further interest in the Turkish market is expected from the Iranian banking sector in the upcoming period of the post-sanctions era.

He said that Turkey’s banking sector operates in accordance with global standards, and this has given much prestige to the sector.

This is while the preferential trade agreement with Iran, which came into effect in early 2015, has already paved the way for Iranian banks to enter the Turkish market.

Iran and Turkey have been pursuing increasing widening of their ties in various fields in the last two decades. Iran is a main energy supplier to Turkey and Ankara has made huge investments in Iran.

Earlier this month, Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri called for the further expansion of bilateral ties with Turkey, and underlined that the two countries should increase their trade balance to $30 billion in the near future.

“A suitable roadmap should be drawn up for expansion of Iran-Turkey relations so that volume of bilateral commercial and economic transactions will be upgraded to $30 billion a year in a short period of time,” Jahangiri said, addressing a joint meeting of Iranian and Turkish traders, also attended by visiting Davutoglu, in Tehran.

He went on to say that Iran and Turkey are important, great and influential countries in the region.

“Iran and Turkey hold good and growing relations and can have positive and constructive impact on destiny of the region, specially in a juncture that the world of Islam faces many problems. Tehran-Ankara cooperation can play an important role in settlement of the problems,” Jahangiri added.

He also said that good accords were reached between the two countries and they had made good decisions in various domains, including oil and gas, customs, banking and tourism cooperation.

Jahangiri urged the Turkish tourists to travel to Iran, and said Tehran wants Turkish financiers to invest in tourism in Iran and build hotels and be active in other tourism infrastructures.