T.C. ZiraatBankasi AS CEO Hüseyin Aydin on March 26 denied Turkish mediareports connecting an audit performed by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of NewYork on the bank to a U.S. probe leading to the prosecution of theTurkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, Bloomberg News reported March 28.

Aydin said Zarrab never had an account at the bank and said theaudit is related to irregularities in the Turkish lender's complianceprocesses, according to the report.

Ziraat Bank failed to upgrade its systems in line withinternational norms by 2013 in accordance with an agreement with the U.S.regulator, as a result of which the lender asked the watchdog to conduct anaudit, which has not revealed any issues, Aydin said.

The bank subsequently upgraded its systems, Aydin added.