Osman Celik named Turkey's new Treasury head

By Zeynep Akyil

ANKARA (AA) - A senior banker with a background in financial markets has been tapped to head Turkey’s Treasury, Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Mehmet Simsek said on Tuesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Simsek touted former Turkiye Finas CEO Osman as "a successful economist with private sector experience."

The Treasury Undersecretariat has been vacant since late 2014, when Ibrahim Canakci left the post for a position with the International Monetary Fund. Since then Deputy Undersecretary Cavit Dagdas has been acting undersecretary.

Ceik was born in 1964 in the eastern Turkish province of Erzincan. After earning a BA in economics from Middle East Technical University, he worked as an economist at the State Institute of Statistics (now the Turkish Statistical Institute) in 1986-1987.

Celik served as chief specialist at the Project Evaluation and Preparation Department at Faisal Finans Kurumu from 1988 to 1995.

In 1995-1999, he operated as project and marketing manager at Ihlas Finans Kurumu, then was promoted to deputy CEO, a post he filled until 2005. He worked at Türkiye Finans Katılım Bankası from 2006 to 2015.

Since June 2015 Celik has served as CEO and board member of Türkiye Finans.​

Financial markets have been watching the Treasury closely since Canakci left a year-and-a-half ago.