Turkey’s central bank is expected to shift its operations from the capital Ankara to its new home in Istanbul in the coming months, according to an email sent by the monetary authority to its employees.
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) Governor Şahap Kavcıoğlu last year announced plans to relocate the bank’s units to the Istanbul Financial Center (IFC) within 2022.
The transition will be completed between June and September, the Turkish media reported on Monday, citing the email sent to employees on Friday.
The bank has already started relocating units from Ankara to its building in Istanbul’s Ümraniye district, before it completely moves to Istanbul Finance Center.
The project started in 2009 and is being developed in Istanbul’s Ataşehir district with an aim of becoming one of the world's major financial centers.
A major part of the IFC project is expected to become operative by the end of the first half of the year, Presidential Finance Office head Göksel Aşan said in late October.
The landmark project aims to establish a financial center that is on par, if not larger, than the existing ones in New York, London and Dubai. The government hopes the project will make Istanbul the center of finance internationally.
Set to be built on an area of approximately 300,000 square meters (3.2 million square feet), the IFC will also host public lenders like Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakıfBank, as well as public institutions, including the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (SPK) and the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).
