A US facility valued at about $70 million for the securitisation of credit card receipts is being arranged by Citibank for Garanti Bankasi. The deal securitises foreign currency spending using credit cards by tourists visiting Turkey.

The seven-year instruments are selling well to institutional investors in the US at an interest rate of 2.65 above US treasury bonds. This is the first operation of its kind for a Turkish bank, although a similar, four-year deal was conducted about two years ago by Anadolu Kredit Kartlari (AKK).

This marks another innovative transaction for Garanti with Citibank. In the summer, Garanti launched a $300 million Euro-commercial paper programme (MEED 29:7:94). Citibank, NatWest Capital Markets, Union Bank of Switzerland and Garanti's Luxembourg branch were both issuers and dealers.