Yapı Kredi signs deal with South Korean bank

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Yapı Kredi CEO Açıkalın says the deal between the Turkish lender and the Indurstial Bank of Korea is a first.

Turkey’s Yapı Kredi Bank signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last month with the Industrial Bank of Korea, one of the largest banks in South Korea, to support the Korean firms’ activities in Turkey, according to a statement by the lender yesterday.

Industrial Bank of Korea CEO Jun-Hee Cho and Yapı Kredi CEO Faik Açıkalın signed the memorandum, the first cooperation agreement between a Turkish and South Korean bank.

Remarking on the free trade agreement that was signed earlier by South Korea and Turkey, Açıkalın said that economic cooperation between the two countries will increasingly continue.

This MoU aims for collaboration between the two countries, including a mutual provision on necessary commercial and institutional banking services for Turkish and Korean companies conducting business or set to invest in both countries.

Presently the trade volume between the two countries is around $5 billion annually and there are almost 200 South Korean companies conducting business in Turkey, according to Turkish Statistical Institution data.