General Manager’s Message
Türk Eximbank provided our exporters with a total support of USD 46.1 billion, of which USD 22.5 billion was credit and USD 23.6 billion was insurance/reinsurance.
In 2021, exports outperformed the forecasts and amounted to USD 225 billion.
In 2021, vaccination efforts gained momentum worldwide, and hence, industrial sector and the services industry quickly recovered globally. Despite the supply chain issues and the soared energy prices, our country outperformed the expectations and forecasts in 2021, and realized exports worth USD 225 billion, up by 32.9% year-over-year. Export has been the key driving force behind economic growth last year. Accordingly, the mission Türk Eximbank undertakes has become even more important. As Türk Eximbank, we keep contributing to growing our country’s exports and we continue to work for providing our exporters with the financing they need. As we broaden our product and service range along this line, we aim to expand the support we extend to our exporters prioritizing our insurance service in this respect.
With a digital-focus, the restructured Türk Eximbank simplified and added speed to its processes to enhance the quality of service furnished to exporters, and launched its new website and mobile branch to achieve a brand-independent service rendering capability. Our initiatives undertaken within the scope of our Digital Transformation Project will continue at the same pace also this year.
Türk Eximbank will keep increasing its support to exports.
In 2021, Türk Eximbank kept producing solutions for exporters’ diverse financing needs. To this end, our available products were updated and upgraded, expanding the coverage of our Bank’s services. In this context, the Bank introduced the Short-Term Service Insurance that insures the forward receivables of firms engaged in the FC-earning services industry, and updated the term options and amounts per transaction for which applications can be made in Pre-Shipment Export Credit programs. In Financial Leasing Credit programs, term options were increased, TL borrowing was enabled, and borrowing via participation banks was also introduced. A funding agreement for USD 250 million was signed with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank for fulfilling the working capital needs of our exporters adversely affected by the pandemic.
In a period when pandemic-originated uncertainties dominated the whole world, we continued to service our exporters with diversified domestic and international funding sources including our syndicated loans. As Türk Eximbank, we believe that the long-lasting relationships we establish with domestic and international banks and institutions underpin the successful deals we realize year after year. Most recently, we rolled over our syndicated loan in November with a ratio of 115% with the participation of 22 leading banks from Europe, US, Far East and the Gulf region. Again in the reporting period, we secured a club loan for EUR 120 million with a 10-year maturity including a grace period of 2 years under the partial guarantee of the World Bank.
We are giving priority to assisting our exporters and contractors to strengthen their competitiveness in the international markets. We have signed cooperation agreements paving the way for co-financing, co-insurance, guarantee and insurance with the export credit agencies of the relevant countries for the projects Turkish exporters and contractors will carry out with their international partners in third countries; our initiatives in this vein will continue.
In keeping with our mission of being by the side of our exporters as Türk Eximbank, we are offering service out of 32 different locations consisting of 22 branches and 10 liaison offices in order to have direct contact with our exporters, to cater to their needs on-site and faster. Hence, we maintain a presence in our provinces realizing 93 percent of our exports, and sustain our close contact with our exporters. Furthermore, we have made numerous services of our Bank accessible through mobile phones without necessitating a branch visit with our electronic banking applications in line with needs and demands. Also ongoing are our initiatives related to business intelligence solutions for monitoring banking services and for their efficient Bank-wide reporting.
A total of USD 46.1 billion support to exports
During 2021, Türk Eximbank’s cash loans to our exporters amounted to USD 22.5 billion; we have created a secure sales environment for them on the back of insurance/reinsurance support totaling USD 23.6 billion, including reinsurance, by insuring forward receivables worth USD 23.5 billion. Thus, we have increased our Bank’s total support to our exporters to USD 46.1 billion. In 2022, on the other hand, we are targeting to bring our total support to the order of USD 50 billion.
93% of those who made use of our Bank’s supports for the first time are SMEs As Türk Eximbank, we are targeting to reach a higher number of exporters in keeping with our policy to expand our base, and we are delighted that SMEs make up 93% of 1,545 exporters that made use of the Bank’s supports for the first time ever in the past one year.
The number of exporter firms extended support by our Bank reached 14,092 in 2021. As Türk Eximbank, we are targeting to reach a higher number of exporters in keeping with our policy to expand our base, and we are delighted that SMEs make up 93% of 1,545 exporters that made use of the Bank’s supports for the first time ever in the past one year. While SMEs accounted for around 60% of the exporters benefiting from our Bank’s services in 2017, this ratio rose to 77% in 2021.
Türk Eximbank added new ones to its products and services in 2021, as it did in previous years.
Besides upgrading and diversifying our loan and insurance products, we are also carrying on with the expansion of our sphere of activity.
Co-founded by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) and Türk Eximbank with the purpose of facilitating our exporters’ access to financing and contributing to resolution of their collateralization problems, İhracatı Geliştirme A.Ş., a joint stock company, will kickstart a new era in export finance.
In keeping with our broad product and service array priority, the “Borrowing Fund” product has been introduced, whereby accounts are opened for exporters which they use to collect their export receivables, repay their credit debts, and perform money transfers.
Moreover, efforts are underway in line with the action “the infrastructural transformation will be realized which will enable exporters to perform their transactions associated with Eximbank supports without branch-dependency”, which is also covered in the Economic Reforms Action Plan. In keeping with this action and strategy, our Bank closely monitors the progress in digitalization which is a prerequisite of the present era. Accordingly, the “new website and mobile branch” have been launched in 2021 within the scope of the initiatives for branch-independent service rendering to our exporters.
In 2022, as we did in 2021, we will carry on with our activities in alignment with our country’s 2023 goals and our exporters’ needs.
Ali GÜNEY
General Manager
