National Bank of Turkey

The National bank of Turkey was founded in 1909. The majority capital came from founding shareholders Sir Ernest Cassel, Lord Revelstoke and Sir Alexander Henderson. Conlin claims that the initial impetus for the bank's creation came about as a result of the Young Turk Revolution.

Britain and France had signed the Entente Cordiale in 1904; in Constantinople, the French financiers were predominant through the Imperial Ottoman Bank leading to an attempt to improve the British position via the creation of a new Anglo-French financial enterprise, the Ottoman Society. Progress was slow due to French reluctance to dilute their competitive position and then overtaken by news in late 1908 of the proposed National Bank of Turkey (NBT) which, according to the Foreign Office was "not initiated or suggested by us, and is carried out independently of us". Cassel, who was to have been involved in the Ottoman Society, also turned out to be involved with NBT, later bringing in Henderson and then Revelstoke. The Foreign office was kept informed at all stages and Sir Edward Grey later in 2009 played a part in securing the services of Sir Henry Babbington Smith as President of NBT, later saying in a memorandum of an interview with a member of the London Committee of the Ottoman Bank:

"... we had no interest in Sir Ernest Cassel's Bank.The Turks had taken the initiative and had arranged the matter independently with Sir Ernest Cassel... I had certainly supported the scheme to the extent of encouraging Sir Henry Babington Smith to accept Sir Ernest Cassel's offer. The selection had been made by Sir Ernest Cassel himself."

and when asked whether the Foreign Office intended to give exclusive support to Cassel's Bank in obtaining concessions at Constantinople, Grey replied:

"..that if need be, we should certainly represent to the Turks that an institution which had been brought into existence as a direct result of their own initiative and representations ought not to be excluded from concessions. But when occasion arose for me to support the Bank's claims I should do what I could to encourage co-operation with French finance."

Conlin, citing a letter of 7 December 1908, that included an NBT prospectus, from Frederick Lane (shipping broker, Rothschilds’ agent and Gulbenkian associate) to Hugo Loudon of Royal Dutch Shell says that the Young Turks had asked Boghos Nubar Pasha and Calouste Gulbenkian to form NBT .

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Wikipedia