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establishment of a new investment and development bank named Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi. The bank would be launched by five individuals and its initial capital would stand at TRY150mn ($25mn), the BDDK said. Investment banking amounts to only a small branch of the Turkish banking system. There are currently 13 investment and development banks in the country. According to data from the regulator, the total assets of Turkey’s development and investment banks stood at TRY284.6bn in the first quarter of this year versus deposits banks’ assets of TRY3.6tn, while loans extended by those financial institutions amounted to TRY203bn against the deposit banks’ lending volume of TRY2.2tn. Combined profits of the investment banks were TRY1.32bn in the first quarter of 2019. The deposit banks posted a net income of TRY11bn. Investment and development banks had a total of 57 branches as of end- March, up from 50 branches a year ago. They employed more than 5,300 personnel. A total of 53 banks (34 deposit banks, 13 development and investment banks—excluding Golden Global—and six Islamic lenders) operate in Turkey.
State-owned Islamic lender Emlak Katilim was the last entity to obtain a banking licence. In January, the BDDK gave authorisation to Emlak Katilim to join the market. It started banking operations in March this year.
North Macedonia’s unit of Turkey's Halk Bankasi to issue €9.6mn of shares. North Macedonia’s securities commission gave the green light to Turkish owned Halkbank to issue long-term shares of a total value of MKD593.21mn (€9.6mn), it said on May 17. Halkbank is among the five largest banks in North Macedonia in terms of assets, which total MKD43.6bn. Owned by Turkish banking group Halk Bankasi, Halkbank has 37 branches in the country. Halkbank will issue 59,321 shares via private offer at price of MKD10,000, the statement said. The share issue is aimed at increasing the bank’s capital.
8.2 Central Bank policy rate
Turkey’s central bank employs secondary tools to combat lira’s latest slump. Turkey’s central bank, under pressure for an emergency rate hike with the Turkish lira back under severe pressure, on May 9 resorted to secondary tools to stabilise the currency by suspending repo auctions and taking additional liquidity steps. A combination of anxieties have hit investor sentiment on Turkey’s currency, but the decision taken this week to re-run the Istanbul mayoral election won by the opposition, seen as a death knell for democracy in the country in some quarters, has caused particularly bad jitters. The regulator said it cut a forex maintenance facility within its reserve options mechanism (ROM) to 30% from 40% to assist financial stability. The move should provide $2.8bn of forex liquidity to the market, while Turkish lira (TRY)
72 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com