How Banks Benefited From Easy Money Policy
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 include very dissenting opinions to generally accepted theories such as high interest rates cause high inflation. It is also not a secret that Turkish President has been piling pressure on the central bank and other...
Turkish Banks: What Went Wrong?
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 world, financial institutions in Turkey are not in a regulatory cycle either. We have mentioned recurrently the rising risks of earning recession in Turkish banks. Not surprisingly, today only two of the six...
Do Turkish Banks Add Economic Value?
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 made it even lower yielding than the riskless Treasury bonds (September RoAA was at 10.41% versus average 10Y bond yield at 10.44%). The situation is even more severe once the other elements of...