AK Bank - Advice sought please

IBM01

Hi,

I am looking to maximise the return on my savings and AK Bank (see link below) have what seem good rates for everyday internet accounts (6.5%) and 1 year fixed savings account (7%). However, they do not seem to make it onto Martin's recommendations page and I wondered why.

http://www.akbank.co.uk/

With falling returns I wondered if anyone has accounts with this bank and could recommend them or not?

I have looked through Martin's links and it seems they offer compensation of 100, 000 Euros through the country's own compensation scheme. My total investment is considerably less than this and the UKs £50, 000, so just wondering if others think it is o.k. to go ahead and put some of my savings with them?

Any info gratefully received to help make an informed decision in these troubled times.

Thanks

Baldur

There is an item about Akbank on thisismoney:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-and-banking/article.html?in_article_id=433594&in_page_id=7

The Turkish parent bank's Fitch ratings can be seen at http://www.fitchratings.com/corporate/ratings/issuer_content.cfm?issr_id=80089736

<Edit> The amounts of deposit protection are obviously out of date in the above thisismoney article - as far as I can recall, the Dutch scheme currently offers cover up to €100,000.