Turkish participation bank opens first abroad branch in north of Iraq

IRBIL 

One of Turkey's participation banks, Albaraka Turk, opened its first abroad branch in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Thursday.

With Albaraka Turk, the number of Turkish banks in Irbil rose to four. Irbil branch has been the 130th branch of Albaraka Turk.
It was in 1995 when a Turkish company opened a branch in the north of Iraq for the first time. The number of Turkish companies in the region rose to 1,020 by the end of 2011. 
The share of Turkish companies among other foreign companies investing in north of Iraq is 52.7 percent. 
After the inauguration ceremony, Albaraka Turk's director manager Fahrettin Yahsi told reporters that the Albaraka Banking Group was operating in 11 countries.
"We plan to open branches or representations in several Balkan and European countries including Germany, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina soon," Yahsi said.
The first finance institution and the pioneer in the field of interest-free banking, Albaraka Turk completed its establishment in 1984 and commenced operations in the beginning of 1985. Albaraka Turk was founded by Albaraka banking Group (ABG), one of the prominent groups of the Middle East, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and a native industrial group of Turkey, which served the Turkish economy for more than half a century.
As of September 30, 2011, in the partnership structure of Albaraka Turk, foreign partners are 66.16%, native partners are 11.06% and shares open to the public is 22.78%.
Albaraka Turk employs 2,700 people right now, and plans to have 200 branches by 2015. 

(Reporting by Zekeriya Gulun)