Demirbank T.A.Ş. is a bank purchased on October 30, 2001, by

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

from the Turkish Banking Regulator for £248 million. The purchase did not include the non-Turkish subsidiaries of Demirbank, e.g. Demirbank Romania, Demirbank Azerbaijan or Demirbank Bulgaria. Demirbank was merged with the bank's existing subsidiary in Turkey, HSBC Bank A.Ş. on December 14, 2001, creating a combined business with a balance sheet of £1.4 billion and capital of £170 million. The combined business operates through a multichannel delivery system including the Internet,

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, f ...

s ("ATMs") and call centers under the HSBC name. It has a network of 168 branches and offices in thirty-eight cities providing a comprehensive range of personal, corporate, treasury, capital markets, stockbroking, fund management and investment banking services across the Turkish market.

Background

The number of banks in Turkey increased rapidly between 1926 and 1929, but these were mostly local banks set up by local businessmen, but an increase in the demand for

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a de ...

in the post

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

era resulted in some merchants and

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

exporters setting up banks to increase the availability of credit in the

Turkish economy Turkey has an emerging market economy, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since 1995, Turkey is a party to the European Union–Turkey Custom ...

. Most banks in the 1940s were state owned banks, but between 1944 and 1960 there was an increase in the number of private commercial banks.

Founding

Demirbank was founded in 1953 with a startup capital of approximately US$714,000 and 79 shareholders, most of whom were

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

and steel merchants from

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

s Perşembe Pazarı. Out of the 79 shareholders, 33 were from Istanbul's minority groups.

References

HSBC acquisitions Defunct banks of Turkey Banks disestablished in 2001 2001 disestablishments in Turkey {{Asia-bank-stub