About

Salim Köse currently leads the legal team as deputy general manager in charge of legal affairs and proceedings at Halkbank, Turkey’s largest state-owned bank. The bank has been active in developing affordable banking products in recent years, such as home, consumer and vehicle loans. The legal team has been crucial in bringing these products to the market in the face of tough regulations. The team also helped the company secure substantial syndicated loan in January 2016. However, nominators were particularly impressed by the team’s legal work on Halkbank’s clearing of $6.7bn worth of outstanding debt to Iran from Indian oil refiners. The matter showed that they were, in the words of one nominator, ‘capable of undertaking the most complex of tasks, largely unassisted for much of the process. The legal function has demonstrated its value to the company many times in recent years and has shown once again that it can deliver very strong results for the business.’