The difficulty faced by Turkish banks when attempting to regionalize their business is that it does not make business sense. The home market has been growing so quickly that the risk-adjusted rewards do not justify the effort involved.
No other investment bank in Turkey dominates the local market more than Is Investment Bank. It is the number-one in both primary and secondary equity markets, it is a leader by number of deals in M&A, and it commands a 34% share of the fixed-income market. It is a pioneer in the burgeoning derivatives markets, which are opening up in the country, and has the largest asset-management arm of any bank in the country, with the widest array of products.
With dominance like that, it is hard to make the case for going out of the country. But Is Investment is doing just that. Indeed, it is because of its dominance of the local market and its culture of seeking positive investment returns for its buy-side clients that it is making the leap.