Turkish lender Vakifbank will open a branch in the Iraqi city of Irbil by the end of the year.
Suleyman Kalkan, director-general of the Vakifbank, told reporters, "we applied to the central government of Iraq to open a branch in Irbil. We have already received a prior approval. We are planning to open our branch in Irbil by the end of the year."
Kalkan added that they were also planning to open another branch in Syria.
As one of the leading "multi-specialist" banks in Turkey, Vakifbank offers products and services that cover corporate, commercial, investment and small-scale enterprise banking, as well as retail and private banking sectors. The bank also provides financial leasing, portfolio management, real estate, insurance and factoring services through its financial participations. As of June 30, 2010, the bank has a network of 602 domestic branches and two international offices located in New York and Bahrain.
Vakifbank posted a non-consolidated net profit of 539.7 million TL (nearly 360 million USD) in the first half of 2010.