Garanti overshoots 1bn-euro asset mark

Turkey's GE Garanti Bank has boosted its assets seven times in the past three years, since it embraced a retail growth strategy, reaching 1.2bn euros in September.

While most bankers are complaining about a lack of demand, which does not allow them to boost their turnovers, the Turkish bank has reported a 50% increase since the beginning of the year alone. Garanti's advantage, however, is that it does not have a significant loan stock, so that repayments are not important, and each newly granted loan immediately translated into a balance sheet increase.
"There are good clients and companies to do business with during the crisis, as well. We have everything we need to grow: capital, cash and know-how. We're using the experience of Turkey, where the parent-bank has 10 million clients," says Murat Atay, 39, general manager of GE Garanti Bank Romania.
For the time being, the domestic subsidiary remains in the red, because of the high expenses, but Atay says the initial plan, of stepping into the black in 2011, is still standing.