OFID extends first-ever trade finance loan to local commercial bank in Turkey

Vienna, Austria, May 18, 2015. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has signed a €25m loan agreement with Fibabanka AS of Turkey. The transaction represents OFID’s first-ever trade finance loan to a local commercial bank in the country. The agreement was signed by OFID Director-General Mr Suleiman J Al-Herbish and two signatories from the bank, Mr Bekir Dildar, board member and general manager and Ms Ahu Heper Dolu, financial institutions coordinator.

The loan will be used by the bank to support its trade finance activities through the provision of short-term foreign currency financing to its borrowers, who are generally small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and corporates involved in the manufacturing, agriculture, and food and beverage industries. The facility will further assist in employment generation and enhance general economic growth. It will also contribute to the strengthening of the financial and banking sector.

Tareq Alnassar, head of OFID’s private sector and trade finance operations, welcomed the agreement. “OFID is proud to support this transaction, as strengthening SMEs and corporates through trade financing mechanisms in our partner countries is one of our priorities,” he said. For Fibabank, Mr Dildar, said: “This trade finance loan will help our bank expand its trade finance activities and reach out to more trade finance customers. We are also very glad to be the first partner of OFID in Turkey and look forward to increasing this cooperation in the future.”

Fibabanka is a private bank owned by Fiba Holding AS, offering corporate, commercial, SME, retail and private banking services with its network of 68 branches and 1,219 employees and has reached a total asset size of TL 8.9bn as of March 2015.

OFID has worked closely with Turkey since 1979, supporting a wide range of projects in the transportation, agriculture and water supply sectors, as well as the financial and banking sectors. OFID also extended grants for emergency aid when the country was hit by earthquakes in 1999 and 2011.