We Shall Be A Savings And Loans Bank

Like many executives, Oyakbank General Manager Hakan Eminsoy is very happy with the figures for 2004. He says: “Our total assets reached TL 6.5 quadrillion and our profits TL 110 trillion. We doubled our figures.” He says that they will continue to create local resources and will not play a very active role in the credit card competition.

For the last 1.5 years Oyakbank has been growing quietly but steadily. General Manager Hakan Eminsoy says that, even though the year-end figures have yet to be finalized, the bank closed last year with total assets of around TL 6.5 quadrillion. He describes Oyakbank as a “savings and loans bank”. He says that in 2005 they plan to increase the share of housing loans in their balance sheet and will turn towards enterprise banking. Hakan Eminsoy told Capital about the current situation of the bank, its targets and the areas on which it will focus.

How was 2004 for Oyakbank? What stage did you reach in terms of figures?

I can say that we 2004 was even more successful than we had expected. Even though the figures have not yet been finalized, our total assets grew to TL 6.5 quadrillion. Our profits were nearly TL 110 trillion. We doubled both our total assets and our profits when compared with the previous year. For this reason 2004 was an extremely good year for the bank both from the point of view of the successes it achieved and in terms of developing itself.

Are you planning to focus on any specific area? In which areas do you plan to grow?

We are a bank which focuses on creating local resources. We always try first to create deposit resources domestically and then place them as credits. This is our basic approach and we describe the bank as a ‘savings and loans bank’. This is a general view but this is how we think.

To go into a little more detail, for example we are not planning to expand our credit card operations. We do not have a strategy of entering into intense competition with other banks here. Instead of focusing on this field we are directing our attention more to other areas. We are focusing more on automobile and housing credits. Here, instead of short-term resources, we are aiming to create deposits or long-term foreign resources.

TACTICS FOR THOSE TAKING HOUSING LOANS

What do you believe are the best terms for TL or foreign exchange?

Given today’s interest rates, Turkish Lira credits with a term of more than five years are not attractive. There will only be a very small decline in the periodic payments for the 6-7 year credits which have been  introduced instead of five year loans. The reason for this is that interest rates are still high. The optimum term for foreign exchange credits is 6-7 years. I mean, there is no great difference between the periodic payments on a 10-12 year foreign exchange credit and a 7 year one. This will only become attractive when interest rates fall. For this reason I would recommend that anyone wishing to take a loan looks at a term of 4-5 years for TL and 6-7 years for foreign exchange. At this stage, going for anything with a longer term may not be very attractive.

BELGİN BAYIR LEVENT
blevent@capital.com.tr