Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Griff1954 wrote: I am currently with Iktisat and looking to move our savings. Near East is offering a better rate of interest, opinions please on the various banks and their rates.

It's very unlikely that there would be any general correlation between the banks' rates and as to whether they are TRNC or mainland.
However, as you probably know, Iktisat is mainland whereas Near East is local.

Ian,

I was under the impression that Iktisatbank (Cyprus Economy Bank) was a local one, is that not the case?

You're right Eileen, it is ... and my wife has just chastised me over this because the major share-holder is a former classmate of hers

By the way, according to the in-laws the following are mainland :
Iş Bankası
Garanti Bankası
Ziraat Bankası
Halk Bankası

And HSBC operate here as a Turkish mainland bank.

The rest are Turkish Cypriot.

TC banks tend to offer higher interest rates than mainland but also have the higher risk levels.
Near East is a new bank and appear to be more aggressive in its marketing trying to gain custom from the existing front runners like Iktisatbank and Credit West.

You have to think like you would in the UK, if someone is offering higher rates why and how are they able to do so? And usually the higher the potential gain the higher the potential risk.

I stand to be corrected, but I think TEB is also mainland. The reason I say that is because they always dispence GBP, as well as TL same as Garanti and HSBC.

sophie wrote:I stand to be corrected, but I think TEB is also mainland. The reason I say that is because they always dispence GBP, as well as TL same as Garanti and HSBC.

Correct Sophie, TEB is indeed also mainland. However, I don't really understand your reason for coming to that conclusion - Garanti for example don't dispense sterling on the mainland, at least the bankomats I used didn't.