One immutable rule in developing nations is the existence of politicians who palpably need fast economic activity to keep its voter base strong. In Turkey, this is absolutely proven to be right by the President Erdogan whose repeated pro-growth economic views are well known ─which…
Turkish banks which have spent years with high profits generated in the past, only managed a ROE of 10.6% (10-year average was 16.1%), well below the business’ cost of capital of at least 15% and the returns which investors aspire. Unlike their peers around the…
Time and time again I have been directing sharp criticism for the relatively poor financial performance, and more importantly, for the industry’s lack of focus on low profitability. In September, return on equity, or ROE, for the whole industry, came down to a level that…
Expectations Over the past two months we have seen earnings upgrades coming to an end in most emerging market as well as in Turkey. Specifically, for Turkish banks, consensus lowered next year’s earnings estimate by a considerable 0.7%, bringing the cumulative cut to 1.5% since…
Huseyin Aydin, head of the Turkish Banks’ Association, said that he expects the regulator to publish new rules that limit fees and commission charged by the banks (read the Bloomberg story here). This has been longstanding topic in the industry and eventually it will be…
Asya Katilim Bankasi A.S. (ASYAB) is the third largest Islamic lender in Turkey by assets which is backed by Gulenist capitalists making it become a target as the government declared war against Gulen movement and called it public enemy number one. As well known, the…
One of the main functions that banks provide is liquidity transformation. To simplify this financial term, one can interpret it as funding shorter term assets with longer term liabilities. In case of failure of this process, the banks face a liquidity mismatch which would put…
In the world of finance is a simple fact that your bonds will lose value when interest rates go up. But the consequences of that fact are all over the place when it is a bank holding the bonds. When banks own bonds in their…
One of the major roles of banks is to channel funds from savings into valuable projects. In doing so, banks engage in liquidity and maturity transformation, since they finance long-term, illiquid project while funding themselves with short-term, liquid abilities. By performing this important role, banks…
Previously I noted about the de-facto deregulation around Turkey’s financial industry with an example of financing a shareholder business by a Islamic finance foundation. In this article, I will focus on deteriorating fundamentals enough to make concerns around the way the industry goes rise. Key…
Recently Turkey’s banking watchdog (BRSA) made a decision that means paving the way for bank owners and top managers to lend to businesses that belong to them. This type of transactions has been under a ban since 2001, the year Turkish financial institutions collapsed. The…
What I mean by Turkish financial markets is the exchange office in Istanbul, of where the government of Turkey spurts to develop as global finance center. Equities, both government and private sector fixed income securities, (equity, precious metal, FX based options and warrants) derivatives, commodities…