International Division

The International Division of Finansbank consists of three groups;

• Banking Relations and Structured Funding
  
  
• Financial Institutions Credit Management
  
  
• Investor Relations
  
  Please click to view the International Division's Organization Chart.
  
  

The Banking Relations and Structured Funding Group is responsible for the following:

• Coordinating and arranging the Bank's major funding projects (syndications, securitizations, subordinated debt, etc.).
  
• Obtaining medium term funds for the Bank's customers' project finance and investment banking needs.
  
• Providing correspondents, rating agencies and creditors with up-to-date information on the Bank with the objective of enhancing its existing relations and developing new relations.
  
• Negotiating terms and conditions for trade finance transactions with correspondents (nostro accounts, documentary business, ECA financing, etc.).

The Financial Institutions Credit Management is responsible for the following:

• Preparing country reports, setting up country lines and monitoring Finansbank's country exposure,
  
• Analyzing the financial status of domestic & foreign banks to determine the risk positions that may be taken by the Bank.
  
• Presenting credit line proposals for banks to the Board of Management.

Recent Achievements by International Division:

Subsequent to the acquisition by the National Bank of Greece of Finansbank’s shares in August 2006, various facilities were repaid early in October and November 2006 with a view to refinance these facilities with more economic and higher tenor facilities. In this respect, the repaid syndicated facilities was replaced by a new USD 700,000,000 Club Loan Facility which was signed on December 1st, 2006 in London. The Facility has two tranches, with tenors of 2 and 3 years. The proceeds from the loan will be used for general trade finance purposes.

On June 22 2006, Finansbank renewed for one further year Tranche A of the Syndicated Loan Facility, which was originally raised on June 24 2005, bringing the total amount, raised from USD 450 million to USD 580 million. This Facility was repaid as per the new strategy described above.

On March 31 2006, Finansbank raised YTL 300 million through a credit card secured loan, with a five-year maturity. This facility, rated BBB+ by Fitch, was the first Turkish Lira denominated medium term loan in the Turkish market which was secured by Turkish Lira denominated receivables.

On 24 March, 2006, Istanbul Bond Company SA was set up as a Special Purpose Company to issue USD 110 million bonds with a five year maturity and USD 110 million bonds with a maturity of 7 years, the proceeds of which were lent to Finansbank. As part of the deal, this loan was than swapped to TRY by the arranger of the Facility, Morgan Stanley International Limited.

In 2006, the Bank was granted 79 new medium and long term credit financing loans by the export credit insurance companies of various countries, including USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Korea, Taiwan and Canada.

A table detailing the major facilities borrowed by Finansbank from the international credit and capital markets as at end-2006 can be seen below :

The Financial Institutions & Credit Management Group (FI) continued in 2006 to assess and manage the risks of all domestic and international banks in accordance with the Bank’s risk policies. While the number of banks which were assigned a limit in 2004 was 268, this figure reached 369 in 2006. When assigning these limits, Finansbank’s rating system was used and these limits were verified to be in proper ratio with registered capital amount ceilings; the Bank is committed to remaining within the country limits assigned by FI.

Credit Ratings:
Credit ratings awarded to Finansbank by the world's three leading international rating agencies as of December 2006 are as follows: