First Initiative For Turkish - Greek Bank

IZMIR (AA) - The first step has been taken to establish a Turkish-Greek commercial bank to improve economic cooperation between the two countries.
     Greek-Turkish Chamber of Commerce Chairman Panagiotis Koutsikos sent a letter to Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO) Executive Board President Ekrem Demirtas, to inform him about the bank.
     Demirtas told the A.A, ''Koutsikos noted in his letter that the future Athens-based bank will have a branch office in Istanbul. Two other branches will be opened in Izmir and Thessalonike a year later. Capital of the bank will be around 100-200 million euro shared equally by Turkish and Greek businessmen.''
     ''The file about establishment of the bank will be readied within the next three months, and sent to the Greek National Bank for approval,'' he said.
     Stressing that IZTO supported establishment of the Turkish-Greek Bank ''just in principle'', Demirtas added that they invited Koutsikos to Izmir to discuss the issue in detail.
     (UK-ULG)
2005-05-18