After the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, eyes turned to the possible Istanbul earthquake. While banks are looking for alternatives in order not to disrupt their operations, some are considering disbanding their headquarters.
After the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, eyes are on the possible Istanbul earthquake. Being the most populous city in Turkey, Istanbul has a critical importance in terms of economy and finance sector. It seems that banks have begun to discuss contingency scenarios to mitigate the effects of this inherent risk.
As it is known, private and foreign banks, including public banks, are headquartered in Istanbul. While the public banks are starting the countdown to continue their activities in Istanbul Ataşehir, almost all of the private banks are headquartered in Istanbul Levent. After the earthquake that severely affected 11 provinces, the banking sector opened the centralization to discussion in this Istanbul.
The Biggest Alternative Ankara
According to the news of Şebnem Turhan from Ekononim, a bank started working on expanding its operations outside of Istanbul right after the earthquake disaster. The name of this bank is not known yet, but its purpose is very clear: To distribute the units to safe places instead of collecting all my central units in high-risk Istanbul. It is also stated that the aforementioned bank has already started to look for a place in Ankara.
It is not easy for the Headquarters to leave Istanbul
On the other hand, the Ankara plan is not considered correct by the entire banking sector. A different banking industry source states that it is not possible to relocate their banks’ headquarters from Istanbul. However, it is underlined that emergency centers are already in place for a possible disaster.
However, the door was left open for some location-based changes in the future. Looking at the banking sector from a broad projection, it is seen that the general attitude is centralization in Istanbul and this will continue. Public banks, including the Central Bank, had already started to move some of their respective departments from Ankara to Istanbul a while ago. On the other hand, it is also said that a new planning may be necessary in spreading the risk across the sector. In addition, studies are carried out for departments where remote working is not possible.
