Solid banking system defends Turkey against crises: CEO

By Gokhan Ergocun and Tuba Sahin

ISTANBUL (AA) – While the world has overcome several economic crises, they have not affected Turkey so much due to its strong banking system, said the CEO of a private lender Citibank Turkey.

"The banking system of [Turkey] and its liquidity structure are solid, there are professional and young managers in the system," Serra Akcaoglu told the 10th Istanbul Finance Summit (IFS'19) that began on Wednesday.

Turkey had some difficulties but the country's economy is so durable, she underlined.

Akcaoglu said Turkish finance and private sectors should further collaborate to fight against potential risks.

Turkey deserves to attract much more investment and events, she said, adding, IFS is a valuable opportunity for this.

Denizbank CEO Hakan Ates, for his part, highlighted that tech-fin companies such as Apple Pay, Facebook’s Libra and Alibaba’s Alipay pose a threat for finance sector.

“They endeavor to accumulate shopping and all services in their own digital platforms. Finance sector develops new technologies against this situation,” Ates said.

He stated that banking is one of the most sectors affected by digitalism.

“We started using DevSecOp (development-security-operation) instead of DevOps as security becomes a threat in technology,” Ates said.