Citibank: a school for bankers

Citibank has had correspondent banking relations with Turkey since World War II. It had an interest in Turkey but not a substantial business until 1975 when a representative office was opened. After this, outstanding loans grew very rapidly until 1977 when Turkey defaulted on the so-called CTLDs (convertible Turkish lira deposits). Under this scheme Turkey had attracted foreign-currency deposits with high interest. In the following three years Citibank played a prominent role in rescheduling the CTLDs and, more important, together with a small group of international banks that included Banca Commerciale Italiana, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and UBS, providing the trade finance that allowed Turkey to maintain international trade. These banks ended up intermediating virtually all of Turkey's trade.