By Fati̇h Mehmet Kurkcu

SAMSUN

Before Turkey becomes a global financial center, as a Muslim country, it should first become an Islamic financial center, said the head of state-run participation lender Vakif Katilim bank on Thursday.

"We are rapidly moving towards becoming an Islamic financial center by taking necessary steps in terms of human resources and product diversification," Ikram Goktas told Anadolu Agency.

Saying that there are no hurdles to Turkey becoming a global financial center, Goktas stressed that the government and participation banks have taken serious steps on this.

Goktas said the sector has 5 percent of the Turkish market share, attributing this to participation banking not having been sufficiently explained in the country.

"I think participation banking has great potential in Turkey," Goktas said.

Participation banking is an interest-free Islamic banking system, he said, adding that such banks serve their customers in line with Islamic principles along with a modern banking approach.

"Our country and Istanbul will first become an Islamic financial center, then a global financial center in short order," he said.

Goktas said they expect participation banking’s market share to grow to 15 percent by 2025, adding that they believe in the potential of the sector.

In the first half of 2018, Turkey's participation banks' total assets were nearly 186 billion Turkish liras ($45.5 billion) and net profits were 1.2 billion Turkish liras ($290 million).

In the same period, Turkey’s five participation banks had over 1,000 domestic and international branches while employing staff of around 15,300.  

* Jeyhun Aliyev contributed to this story from Ankara