Istanbul Finance Center opens with inauguration of banking section

The first phase of Türkiye's landmark project, the Istanbul Finance Center (IFC), which will be home to lenders, was officially inaugurated on Monday.

Public lenders Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakifBank will relocate their headquarter to the banking section.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Treasury and Finance Minister Nurettin Nebati said: "The IFC is expected to spike Türkiye's financial services exports by three times by 2036, and its contributions to the country's gross domestic product may reach $130 billion within 15 years."

The IFC will generate 102,000 qualified new jobs over the 15-year period, he added.

A wide range of institutions, from banks to insurance companies, will unite in a single location under the IFC.

The IFC project, run by the Türkiye Wealth Fund and developed in coordination with the Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Ministry, started in 2009.

The IFC is going to be home to Türkiye’s most prominent financial institutions such as the Central Bank, Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, and the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye.

The state-of-the-art center boasts 1.4 million square meters (15 million feet) of office space, a 100,000-square-meter (nearly 1.1 million-square-foot) shopping center, a conference and performance center for 2,100 people, a five-star hotel spanning 30,000 square meters (nearly 323,000 square feet), and a parking lot with a capacity of 26,000 vehicles.

The IFC aims to host nearly 100,000 employees and visitors daily and its campus will feature a 1.2-kilometer (0.75-mile) social paraphernalia area along its middle axis.

The project also includes walking paths, parks, and recreational areas to raise the quality of both work and life.

Financial institutions at the IFC will enjoy certain tax advantages, including having 75% of their income deducted from the corporate tax base.

They will also have fee and stamp exemptions.