Alternatif Bank has received 3 awards as part of IFC’s Global Trade Finance Program and EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme. The Bank received these awards with its active contributions to the economy by ever increasing its IFC and EBRD trade facilitation limits as an issuing bank.

Alternatif Bank has received two awards as part of the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Global Trade Finance Program, which recognised the Bank’s trade finance performance as well as its operational excellence. Having joined IFC’s programme in 2011, Alternatif Bank has managed to have its limits increased by IFC through the years and has continuously channelled services to its international trade clients. These efforts have brought the Bank the “Best Partner Bank in Europe and Central Asia” award, as well as the “Best Trade Operations Bank Partner” award in recognition of its operational excellence. Alternatif Bank has also received the “Most Active Issuing Bank in Türkiye” award as part of the European Bank Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) Trade Facilitation Programme. Alternatif Bank has joined the EBRD’s programme in 2017, and has qualified for this award for 3 consecutive years, through its active and efficient utilisation of the facility.

Alternatif Bank CEO Kaan Gür said, “We are pleased and honoured to have received these awards from two prestigious institutions such as IFC and EBRD. We were also pleasantly surprised with the coincidence to have received the announcements of these awards consecutively. The strong relations we have established with these multilateral institutions reconfirm both the confidence in our Bank and our success in international trade. I believe that these awards evidence our productive cooperation with both institutions through the years, as well as our continuously improving business volumes and our operational excellence. This success stems from Alternatif Bank’s commitment and initiative to support exports and international trade. We have increased our lending for exporters by 60% in the last 2 years to USD 870 million as of 2020 first quarter. Despite the flat trend in Türkiye’s international trade volume in 2019, we have managed to increase our total international trade volume by 38% to USD 3.2 billion. In the first quarter of 2020, our growth trend continued with 14% increase in comparison to the same period last year. The drivers of this growth are the quality service provided by our highly competent team specialised in trade finance and our growing number of customers which is evidenced by the 23% increase in the number of our international trade customers in the last two years.”

Kaan Gür has also provided information about the Bank’s ongoing international trade initiatives: “We will always be a supporter of exporters and international trade with our advisory and insightful banking approach. Our growing financing capacity is only a fraction of this support. In addition to our focus on financing, we also strive to transfer the know-how of our expert teams through such channels as our International Trade Advisory Hotline, international trade seminars to all businesses regardless of whether they are our customers or not. We will endeavour to increase our support for the businesses engaged in international trade and continue our companionship.”