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

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

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) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...

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 debt) ...

in the post

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

era resulted in some merchants and

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

exporters setting up banks to increase the availability of credit in the Turkish economy. 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; it has symbol Fe () 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, forming much of Earth's o ...

and

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

merchants from

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

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