​Aktif Bank, Turkey's largest privately owned investment bank, hosted the members of the "World Savings and Retail Banking Institute" (WSBI) in Istanbul in cooperation with Banka Kombetare Tregtare, the affiliate of Çalık Holding in Albania.

​Aktif Bank, Turkey's largest privately owned investment bank, hosted the members of the "World Savings and Retail Banking Institute" (WSBI) in Istanbul in cooperation with Banka Kombetare Tregtare, the affiliate of Çalık Holding in Albania.

Aktif Bank and Banka Kombetare Tregtare, the WSBI member, affiliate company of Çalık Holding and the largest bank of Albania, hosted the members of the "World Savings and Retail Banking Institute" (WSBI), representing 60,000 financial institutions from 80 countries worldwide, on April 16th, in Swissotel Istanbul.

Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s Deputy Executive Manager Dr. Alper Koray has also attended to the opening section of the meeting gathering the executives of 30 savings banks from 20 countries. The main focus of the meeting was on the priorities of Turkey related to G20 Chairmanship for the year 2015 and the missions that the banks would undertake on this matter.

During the meeting where particularly the funding of SMEs is discussed, the participants had the opportunity to share the best examples from their countries.

Aktif Bank Deputy Chairman of the Board and BKT Chairman of the Board Mehmet Usta, who is also a Board Member of the WSBI since May 2012, and BKT General Manager Seyhan Pencaplıgil have also attended to the Board Meeting of the WSBI. During his speech at the meeting, Usta emphasized that the Turkish economy has become the 18th biggest economy of the world particularly with its successful performance during the last 12 years and said, "Turkey has increasingly became an important actor for the international investors within the global financial crisis atmosphere. Total 120 billion dollars of direct foreign investment, which 75 percent is from the European countries, is an important indicator for this. We are always here to cooperate with you - the valuable banks and your customers - for your investment projects or foreign trade attempts related to the rising Turkish market."

During the evening program of the international summit, today and future of the Turkish Finance Industry is discussed with the participation and presentation of The Secretary General of The Banks Association of Turkey Dr. Ekrem Keskin.

Founded in 1924, the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) has 6,000 financial institution members in 80 countries. According to the data from the year 2013, the member banks and financial institutions of the WSBI have reached to a total asset size of 13.5 trillion USD, 165,000 branches, 1,850,000 employees and 1 billion customers.