Oyak Bank (Oyak, the bank or the company) was formerly the Turk Boston Bank, which was established in 1984 as a branch of the First National Bank of Boston, then converted to a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1990, and subsequently sold to a group of local investors, including Ordu Yardimlasma Kurumu (OYAK). OYAK acquired majority ownership of the bank at the end of 1993 (it now owns 100%), and changed bank’s name to Oyak Bank in mid-1996. With a strong owner and conservative management, the bank has survived nearly three years of recession in Turkey as well as a devastating financial crisis in 2001/2002 which led to nearly a dozen banks being taken over by the State Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF). Oyak Bank’s merger with Sumerbank on January 11 2002, one of the banks auctioned by SDIF, is a clear sign how the Bank is committed in its growth strategy. With this merger the Bank’s total assets reached around $2.1 billion (pre merger total assets were around $300 million) and total shareholder’s equity amounted to roughly $228 million (as opposed to pro merger figure of $90 milion). The project would consist of a flexible, multi-purpose facility, which would allow Oyak Bank to - lengthen the average maturity of its liabilities, both strengthening its balance sheet and enabling it to fund longer term assets; - build up its consumer finance activities; and - make opportunistic acquisitions as the Turkish banking sector undergoes further consolidation. This would be IFC’s second loan to OB; the first, a $40m syndicated facility is almost fully repaid.