The Cooperation Agreement between Aktif Bank and The Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits

 The Cooperation Agreement between Aktif Bank and The Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits (ICIEC) has been signed by Dr. Abdel Rahman Taha, General Manager of ICIEC and Dr. Önder Halisdemir, CEO of Aktif Bank.  With this agreement, Aktif Bank aims to increase foreign trade and investments with the use of ICIEC’s products by exporters, investors and banks in Turkey.

With the signing of this agreement, Aktif Bank will offer short-term, medium-term and long-term products of ICIEC such as “Export Credit Insurance Policy”, “Investment Insurance Policy” and “Documentary Credit Insurance Policy” to exporters, investors and banks in Turkey. Under the scope of this cooperation, Aktif Bank will also provide ICIEC with a wide range of services including marketing, operations, claims, risk assessment, insurance consultancy and other insurance services.  

At the signing ceremony, Dr. Abdel Rahman Taha said “We have the great pleasure of signing this local agency agreement with Aktif Bank which forms the foundation of our cooperation in Turkey. The objective of this partnership is to encourage Turkish exporters to compete in the international markets by expanding their businesses to different countries while being covered against political and commercial risks and to help Turkish investors to invest in other OIC Member countries and benefit from ICIEC's cover against country risk. ICIEC’s main advantage is its status as the only Islamic multilateral institution in the world providing export credit and investment insurance services. Our shareholders include Turkey as well as other countries from Africa, the Middle East and the Far East. This gives ICIEC a significant leverage when it covers transactions and investments in all these countries”. Dr. Abdel Rahman Taha added “We see Aktif Bank as a strong and strategic partner in Turkey and we are confident about the support Aktif Bank will provide to ICIEC in the Turkish market".

Aktif Bank’s CEO, Dr. Önder Halisdemir stated “As ICIEC’s partner in Turkey, Aktif Bank will introduce to the Turkish exporters and investors a full spectrum of ICIEC’s products. With these products, Turkish businessmen will be able to enter into new markets in Africa, CIS, Balkans, Middle and Far East and improve their foreign trade volume in these countries. Despite being a dominant global exporter with USD 132 billion of exports in 2008, Turkey has not benefited from export insurance coverage sufficiently. Only 4% of the total exports have been insured in 2008 although almost 60% of total export receipts are in the form of cash against goods. This ratio is about 8% worldwide”. Dr. Önder Halisdemir pointed out that “Turkish exporters and investors will have additional benefits by using ICIEC’s products offered by Aktif such as balance sheet protection against non-payment of export receivables, increased international sales by offering extended payment terms to the overseas customers and access to more working capital facilities from the banks by assigning the insurance policy to the banks as collateral”. Dr. Halisdemir concluded his speech by saying “I would like to announce to all exporters, investors and international contractors that we stand by them with ICIEC’s insurance product offerings to mitigate their risks when entering into developing markets especially into Africa where we see great potential for Turkish exporters and investors. It is our great pleasure to sign this agreement in the name of our country, the Region and our institution”.

About the Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investments and Export Credits (ICIEC):

ICIEC is a multilateral institution rated Aa3 by Moody’s and owned by the Islamic Development Bank Group and 37 countries from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. The mandate of ICIEC is to promote trade between its Member Countries and to facilitate foreign direct investments into its Member Countries. In the fulfilment of this mandate, ICIEC provides different “export credit insurance” products to cover exports from its Member Countries as well “investment insurance” products to cover investments coming into its Member Countries.

 

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