The cooperation was announced at a press conference in Ankara in which an agreement was signed by TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, TOBB board member İlhan Parseker, Halkbank General Manager Hüseyin Aydın and Halkbank Assistant General Manager Yunus Esmer.
Speaking at the ceremony, Hisarcıklıoğlu said the union would transfer TL 100 million to Halkbank accounts to be extended as loans to small companies. In addition, Halkbank will allocate TL 1 billion in cash and TL 500 million in non-cash funds for use by SMEs together with another $1 billion (TL 1.5 billion) in loans to fuel exports.
Hisarcıklıoğlu said TOBB would continue backing the private sector by transferring the money it has collected from its members in the form of fees for the use of its members. They will never abdicate their responsibility in finding solutions to the problems of the Turkish private sector, he added.
TOBB and its member chambers and commodity exchanges have so far provided funds totaling TL 1.25 billion, utilized by 33,200 companies, Hisarcıklıoğlu stated. Companies will be able to apply for loans from the most recent fund package with a ceiling of TL 40,000 and the cost of the loan will be a simple annual interest rate of 10.85 percent.
Halkbank’s Aydın emphasized that helping small companies was already a part of the bank’s core mission statement. He said Halkbank has been and always will be a strong supporter of the production and manufacturing sectors in Turkey, something it sees as its mission.
Aydın further explained that 26.3 percent of total loans extended in Turkey last year were undertaken by his bank alone “without making any concessions,” meaning that they resisted deviating from their established criteria.
