Türkiye’s VakıfBank has secured €200mn from ING Germany through a 10-year facility carrying a 95% guarantee from Italian export credit agency Sace, Global Trade Review reported. The funding is intended to finance imports of Italian goods and services by the Turkish bank’s customers, providing long-term funding for their purchases from Italy.
VakıfBank said the agreement had closed the week before the report’s publication on 23 October. The lender expects it to improve access to trade finance and support trade between Türkiye and Italy. Chief executive Osman Arslan said the bank intended to use the proceeds to help customers conduct foreign trade while strengthening economic ties between the two countries. He also described long-term international funding as part of the bank’s support for Türkiye’s real economy.
On the exporter side, Sace expects the transaction to support sales by more than 100 Italian companies, according to Ciro Aquino, its regional director for Africa, Türkiye and the Middle East. Those businesses are primarily small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies. The stated purpose therefore links financing for Turkish importers with support for Italian suppliers, rather than identifying a particular commodity or industrial sector as the focus of the facility.
ING Germany also highlighted the facility’s administrative arrangements. Tiziano Tallarida, director of origination and structuring for structured export finance, said the transaction met VakıfBank’s long-term financing requirements while reducing the documentation burden associated with drawdowns. Global Trade Review reported that the deal followed a similar Sace-backed financing completed by ING and VakıfBank in 2023.
The facility forms part of a broader funding programme supported by international guarantees. Arslan said VakıfBank had secured US$2bn in new funding under such guarantees since the start of 2026, including backing from OeKB and World Bank Group members IBRD and Miga. That activity included a US$250mn trade finance facility between JP Morgan and VakıfBank in June, supported by Miga.