Latest regulations may increase appetite for loans: Akbank CEO

ISTANBUL

Changes to regulations introduced earlier in February may increase banks’ appetite for extending loans, says Kaan Gür, CEO of Akbank, one of Türkiye’s largest private banks.

Those changes also eased cost pressures for banks, Gür told a press conference on Feb. 13.

On Feb. 5, the Central Bank announced that reserve requirements of eligible deposit banks maintained for their Turkish Lira deposit and FX-protected deposit accounts with a maturity longer than one month will be subject to remuneration every three months.

The bank added that this regulation aimed to strengthen the monetary transmission mechanism, increasing the share of Turkish lira deposits and supporting the transition from FX-protected deposits to lira deposits.

Gür also said that some portion of the loan requests started to switch from lira to foreign currency.

The bank executive added that non-performing loans may increase this year.

According to the latest data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, the share of non-performing loans in total loans was only 1.6 percent as of the end of December 2023.

Akbank will invest a total of $ $200 million in technology in 2024, Gür also said.

The lender earmarked another $600 million for technology investments in the next three years, according to the bank’s executive. 

Akbank’s consolidated net income increased by 11 percent in 2023 from the previous year to 66.5 billion liras. Its revenues rose from 103 billion liras to 141.5 billion liras.

The lenders’ total assets grew 66 percent to reach 1.9 trillion liras, while deposits grew 79 percent to 1.3 trillion liras.