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Dr. Süleyman Erol, who successfully carried out the General Manager duty for more than 10 years, handed over the mandate to Mazher Zaheer.
According to the statement made by Creditwest Bank, Mazher Zaheer began his banking career in 1997 as a Treasury and Foreign Operations specialist at Creditwest Bank, and since 2008, he has held different roles as Deputy General Manager responsible for Treasury and International Banking, Marketing, IT and Subsidiaries.
Since 2006, Dr. Süleyman Erol has been serving as executive manager at Altınbaş Holding and after 10 years as General Manager of Creditwest Bank, he will continue his career as Altınbaş Holding Finance Group President and will be responsible for all finance investments of the Holding in Ukraine, Turkey and Cyprus.
Mazher Zaheer was born in Pakistan in 1975 and after his graduation from the International Business Department of the American University of International Studies in 1996, he completed his master’s degree in the Department of Banking and Finance at Girne American University in 1998. Mazher Zaheer began his career in Creditwest Bank under the umbrella of Altınbaş Holding in 1997 as a Treasury and Foreign Operations specialist and as a result of his success, in 2008 he was appointed as Deputy General Manager of Treasury and Foreign Operations. Mazher Zaheer has more than 15 years of experience in treasury, foreign operations and capital markets and has served as Deputy General Manager in different departments of the bank.
Commenting on the subject, Mazher Zaheer stated that Creditwest Bank is an institution that always invests in its employees and leads them in their career paths. Zaheer also underlined the positive effects of having specialized and educated employees and being an innovative, open-minded and pragmatic bank with the largest capital amongst private banks in Cyprus.
He added that their core energy source consists of the determination and creativity of the employees who work consciously, honestly and patiently while investing in human resources and technologies and who do not give up their ultimate goal of superior quality and are eager to improve.
Expat Banking
As a co-founder of expat banking, he reiterated the clear importance of expat banking for Creditwest Bank with the aim of continuing to welcome more expat clients and further enhance the products on offer. Also, with a growing number of dedicated associates and expat banking branches located throughout Northern Cyprus, Creditwest continues to improve and tailor its services to support the needs of current customers and welcome new clients choosing to base themselves in the TRNC.
Mazher Zaheer also stated that the bank’s experience and knowledge of their customers’ needs and expectations are unrivalled. This allows them to identify solutions and develop fast, efficient and high quality products and services within a growing distribution network. Creditwest can draw upon new partnership arrangements with other local businesses to provide a more complete and diverse service to its customers. Whilst the bank continues to develop and innovate to sustain profitability in a highly competitive market, ethics, social responsibility and customer satisfaction remains at the very heart of Creditwest Bank’s mission.
On Wednesday 14th December, Near East Bank held a Christmas Soirée for their expat customers at the Park Palace Hotel in Kyrenia. The Bank had decided this year not to hold the event at their Karaoğlanoğlu Branch and their choice of venue for 2016 was excellent.
We thought about the days long ago in the UK when banking was more personal and you could visit the Branch Manager and join him in his office to discuss your finances etc. Chris recalled a cinema advertisement for a bank where the Bank Manager would step out from the wardrobe, promoting the personal touch. Here in North Cyprus we can still enjoy the personal touch where you are made very welcome and often invited into the Manager’s office and offered tea or coffee and sit and have a chat.
Many of the banks who have expat clientele hold a Christmas Soirée for their customers and we were delighted to receive an invitation from Near East Bank. We arrived at the hotel to be greeted by Naci Karanlık who has now moved on to a new role within the Banking Group and we found a large number of people in a very nice room where there was a vast array of food and drinks to tempt the guests. There were also 2 Turkish Cypriot ladies in traditional dress making fresh pancakes with various fillings.
We spoke with Enver Haskasap from Near East Group who is also associated with the NEU Drift Team and Soner (Sonny) Soybaflı who is a fairly new member of the Bank dealing with Expatriate Customer Service, plus other members of the Bank Group, including Bahar Gűdenoğlu who is now the Manager of the Karaoğlanoğlu Branch. We did not know a lot of the guests but did spot John Wyn Roberts and Nick Vye and one or two other familiar faces.
After speaking with some of the Near East personnel we have met previously and some of the new members we made our way to sample some of the delicious canapés and hot food which had been provided, there were 2 short speeches and then some live background music to enjoy as well.
The Park Palace Hotel is very nice, situated on the outskirts of Kyrenia and within walking distance of the town and it looked very Christmassy with the colourful lights decorating the outside of the building. Nacı told us that one of his staff had been given the task of arranging the event and she had made an excellent job of it, in conjunction with the hotel, with many very nice features.
All in all this was a very pleasant couple of hours and we would like to thank Near East Bank Group for their hospitality.
Figen Kaymak would like to invite all Creditwest Customers to join her and the Creditwest team for a seasonal get together and drinks at the Di Figero Restaurant, Karaoglanoglu on Friday 16th December between 3 pm and 7 pm.
To help make the seasonal spirit tingle, Cyprusscene will be donating a few pennies from this old man’s hat. Ho ho ho.
