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Weekly Lists
January 25, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 30
bne:Credit
Halkbank becomes third Turkish state lender to offer cheap loans to ease credit card debt burdens
Czech Republic the most vulnerable to Brexit, UniCredit prognosis suggests
Turkish lender Halkbank has announced that it will offer advantageous loans to people with problematic credit card debts, joining other state banks Ziraat Bankasi and Vakifbank in providing the service.
Halkbank is offering loans with a duration of up to 60 months with a monthly interest rate of 1.1% — that is half the rate private banks in Turkey charge on loans with similar maturities.
The loans with favourable terms announced by the three public banks come just ahead of the March local elections. Analysts see the credits as a “populist measure” designed to help the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) win the elections at a tough time for voters, with Turkey facing a recession.
The Czech Republic, together with Slovakia, are considered to be the most vulnerable to a hard Brexit among the CEE countries. Brexit is expected to badly hurt CEE exports and investments, according to
a UniCredit prognosis, daily E15.cz reported on January 20.
UniCredit expects the CEE economic environment to remain favour- able in 2019 with most of the countries posting GDP growth of more than 3%, although with some cyclical deceleration.
The biggest barrier to economic growth in the region, particularly in the Czech Republic and Hungary, is the tight labour market. Ac- cording to the bank, the most important drivers of growth are to be domestic demand and consumption, influenced by low unemploy- ment and increasing wages.
Macedonia’s UNIBank said on January 22 it will place perpetual bonds for a total of €5mn, the first such issue on the Macedonian market.
Macedonian banks have been able to issue perpetual bonds, a new financial instrument, since mid-2018. These bonds have no maturity date, so they are treated as equity not as a debt. The finance will be used for the bank to increase its capital. UNIBank said in a bourse filing that it obtained approval from the Securities Commission to issue long-term securities through a public offering.
Macedonia’s UNIBank gets nod to place first perpetual bond issue