Bank Asya faithful boost deposits after Turkey seizes lender


Date posted: February 6, 2015

ISOBEL FINKEL

he typical image of a bank under duress is a long line of customers trying to get their money back. In Turkey this week, it was a queue of people trying to put it in.

Sayida Kayipova went to a Bank Asya branch in Istanbul’s Gultepe neighborhood, near the main financial district, on Wednesday. A customer for 6 years, the 31-year old chemistry PhD student was opening an account for her 7-yr old daughter’s 150 ($62) liras of savings, joining a line of customers to deposit funds a day after the government had seized the lender.

“I feel like an injustice has been committed so I wanted to take a stand,” she said. “Swooping down in the middle of the night like that is an attempt to scare people and manipulate our perceptions, but it will only pull us together.”

Bank Asya has become a battleground in the feud between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and self-exiled, U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a preacher whom Erdogan blames for instigating a coup attempt against him and whose followers founded the lender. Supporters of each have sought, by turn, to strengthen and weaken the bank.

TV reports of customers queuing to deposit money at Bank Asya branches after the takeover follow a similar phenomenon in September, when partisans of the Gulen movement advertised the sale of electronics, cars and even apartments with the stated purpose of putting the proceeds into Bank Asya accounts.

That was in response to months of pressure, which included the suspension of trading in Asya’s shares on Istanbul’s stock exchange and Erdogan telling businessmen that accusations of attempts to bankrupt the bank missed the mark as the lender was “already bust.” The government attributed the takeover earlier this week to Asya breaking banking regulations on transparency.
“They’ve sent money through electronic transfer, they’ve come through my door with cash in hand; sometimes it’s tens and sometimes it’s thousands of liras, but it’s been very busy,” Mehmet Fatih Alsac, manager of Kayipova’s Bank Asya branch, said. “It’s got to the point where it’s just not rational any more and people just want to support the bank.”

Larger investors have also stepped in to keep the bank afloat, contributing 225 million liras in a capital increase in November, even after the bank’s assets shrank by half and it recorded its first-ever unprofitable quarter.

Regulatory obstacles for Asya started after Erdogan and former ally Gulen publicly fell out over a corruption probe into senior members of Erdogan’s government, which the former prime minister said was a plot to unseat him. Erdogan purged thousands of members of the police and judiciary in response, and none of the charges have resulted in convictions.

In the aftermath of the corruption scandal, state-owned companies like Turkish Airlines said they withdrew deposits from the lender.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at a rally in northwestern Kastamonu province, said on Wednesday the takeover was completely legal. “Why should a religious congregation have a bank, a prosecutor, a legal arm, a media arm?” he said in reference to Gulen’s global movement.

Ahmet Beyaz, replaced as chief executive officer in the state takeover, countered in an interview in pro-Gulenist paper Zaman published early Thursday that the move was an attempt to scare depositors into withdrawing their money.

Where a run on deposits might be expected, a run of deposits seems to have materialized instead. People queued up outside the bank’s branches holding signs that said, “We’ll not stop, we’re here to prop it up.”

Still, customers had called in to check that their savings were still there. Like the elderly gentlemen who feared for the 25,000 liras he had gathered for his pilgrimage to Mecca and, while Turkey guarantees citizens’ deposits up to the value of 100,000 liras, there had been withdrawals, said Alsac, the Kayipova branch manager.

“We’ve ended the day up though, without a doubt” he said, adding that the bank was inviting a gold expert into the branch to value trinkets customers were expected to put into bullion savings accounts popular at the country’s four Islamic lenders.

Isik Okte, investment strategist at BNP Paribas’s local unit TEB Invest, witnessed the commotion outside Asya’s head office the day after the takeover. He saw riot vehicles and Turkish flags, as well as placards reading, “We’ve come to lie down in front of our bank.”

“It was surreal,” Okte said. “There were crowds of young people, and women who’d brought their families, and grilled meatball vendors who’d turned up to feed the crowds.”

Depositors’ support for the ailing bank was mirrored by stock market investors. While Turkey’s main index was the world’s worst performer, in dollar terms, Bank Asya ended the day after the takeover 3.3 percent higher.

Published on Bloomberg Business, and also appeared on The Chicago Tribune, 05 February 2015, Thursday

Source: Bloomberg News , February 5, 2015


Related News

Man abducted by Turkish intel exposes torture during 9-month enforced disappearance

Gökhan Türkmen, who was allegedly abducted by Turkish intelligence officers and kept in a non-official detention center for 271 days, has said he was tortured, subjected to severe threats and sexually harassed and abused during his enforced disappearance.

Father jailed over Gülen links, 6-months-old paralyzed baby left in intensive care

Y., the father of a 6-month-old disabled baby, was reportedly arrested almost three months ago over alleged links to the Gülen movement. The newly-born disabled baby has been left with the mother, who told the news portal that the baby underwent three expensive and crucial surgery in the past three months.

Ambassadors uneasy over Erdoğan’s orders concerning graft probe

Turkey’s ambassadors have expressed displeasure over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks that called on them to “tell the truth” to their foreign interlocutors, saying that defending the government against corruption allegations in not the ambassadors’ business.

A New Report In Sweden Reveals Erdoğan Orchestrated July 15 Coup In Turkey

Last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey is nothing but a false flag orchestrated by Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayip Erdoğan and his henchmen to create a pretext for a mass persecution of critics and opponents in a state of perpetual emergency, a new detailed study titled ‘July 15: Erdoğan’s Coup’ by Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) concluded.

White House courts int’l students as language festival concludes in DC

White House has hosted international students who has been in Washington for over two weeks as part of the International Language and Culture Festival as the festivities had come to an end with a mini performance at the White House for US officials.

How It Feels to Be a Dissident in Turkey After the Failed Military Coup

LOUISE CALLAGHAN To plan a speedy political exile from Turkey today, you need two things: a world map and the Wikipedia page on “visa entry requirements for Turkish citizens.” If you get out a highlighter and start cross-referencing the two, you’ll quickly see the bottom half of the map is more accessible than the top. […]

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

‘Turkey has become dangerous for us’: Failed coup has some seeking asylum here

Turkic American Alliance calls on Davutoğlu to prove letter of complaint claims

Turkish Schools inspired by Gulen becoming global brands

4th International Panel for Sharing Coexistence Experience in Korea

Critics locked up at home as President Erdogan arrives in India

Governor’s office rejects Kimse Yok Mu’s application for aid campaign

Exit strategy for the AKP

Copyright 2024 Hizmet News