Financial Institutions in Turkey
HACETTEPE UNİVERSİTY
FACULTY OF ECONOMICS
AND
ADMINISTRATION SCINCE
DEPARTMENT OF
ECONOMİCS
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE
FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN TURKEY
TERM PAPER
BY: ALTYNBEK USUPBAEV
9861215
ANKARA 2006
Financial Institutions in Turkey
Financial institutions are the parts of the
financial system. The financial system is the complex structure, and every year
it channels billions of dollars, euros, yens, Turkish liras from savers to
people with productive investment opportunities. Financial institutions
commonly separated as depository institutions and as non-bank institutions.
Our major target in this paper
is to have a wide look at financial institutions in Turkey. For easy work and
best understanding it makes sense to follow mere wisdom “think globally- do
locally”. So, in order to make a proper outline, I plan firstly work on general
financial institutions all over the world, and then look whether they exists in
Turkey, their structure and how they work.
Non-bank
Financial Institutions
Although depository institutions, or by
other words banks are the financial institutions we deal with most often, they
are not the only financial institutions we come in contact with. In such
transactions like purchasing insurance from insurance company, or buying a
share of common stock with the help of the broker, we are dealing with non-bank
financial institutions.
The role of non-bank financial
institutions is to transfer funds from lenders-savers to borrowers-spenders. In
the time of technological progress, non-bank financial institutions innovate
new services, and now compete more directly with banks by providing banklike
services to their customers.
Insurance
Companies: Every day
we face the possibility of the occurrence of certain catastrophic events that
could lead to large financial losses. Because these losses could be large
relative to our financial resources, people found the solution by buying
insurance coverage that will compensate the sum of money if catastrophic events
occur.
Life Insurance Companies: The first life insurance company in
the United States (Presbyterian Ministers’ Fund in Philadelphia) was
established in 1759, in Turkey it was established in 1893 by Osmanli Sigorta, a
member of Osmanli Bank. In 1918 was created İttihad-i Milli – the first
insurance company created by Turkish laws. This huge difference in time was
because insurance in Ottoman Empire was accepted as gambling, and
correspondingly was forbidden. But after two great fires in Beyoglu and Kumkapi
(Stanbul) in 1870 the laws were rearranged, and gave permission for foreign
insurance companies to service in Ottoman Empire.
Life insurance
company sells policies that provide income if a person dies and incapacitated
by illness, or retire. Such companies are organized in two forms: as stock
companies or as mutual companies. Stock companies are owned by stockholders;
mutuals are technically owned by policyholders.
Because death
rates for population as whole are predictable with a high degree of certainty,
life insurance companies can accurately predict what their payouts to
policyholders will be in the future. Consequently, they hold long-term assets
that are not particularly liquid – corporate bonds and commercial mortgages as
well as some corporate stocks.
There are two
principal forms of life insurance policies: permanent life insurance (such as
whole, universal, and variable life) and temporary insurance (such as term).
Permanent life insurances policies have a constant premium throughout the life
of the policy. In the early years of the policy the size of the premium exceeds
the amount needed to ensure against death because the probability of death is
low. Thus the policy builds up a cash value in its early years. But in later
years the cash value declines because the constant premiums falls below the
amount needed to ensure against death, the probability of which is now higher.
Term insurance, by contrast, has premiums that are matched every year to the
amount needed to ensure against death during the period of the term (for
example one or five years). Hence term policies have no cash value, thus, in
contrast to permanent life policies, provide insurance only, with no savings
aspects.
Property And Casualty Insurance Companies: Property and casualty insurance companies
specialize in policies that pay fro losses incurred as a result of accidents,
fire, or theft. Property and casualty insurance companies same as life
insurance companies separated both as stock and mutual companies, and regulated
by government. The investment policies of property and casualty insurance
companies are affected by two basic facts. First, because they are subject to
income taxes, the largest share of their assets is held in tax-exempt municipal
bonds. Second, because property losses are more uncertain than the death rate
in a population, these insurers are less able to predict how much they will
have to pay policyholders than life insurance companies are. The earthquake in
Izmit in 1999 exposed the property and casualty insurance companies to huge
losses. Therefore, property and casualty insurance companies hold more liquid
assets than life insurance companies. Property and casualty insurance companies
will insure against losses from any type of events, including fire, theft,
negligence, malpractice, earthquakes, and automobile accidents. If possible
loss being insured is too large for any firm, several firms may join together
to write a policy in order to share the risk. Insurance companies may also
reduce their risk exposure by obtaining reinsurance. Reinsurance allocates a
portion of the risk to another company in exchange for a portion of the premium
and is particularly important for small insurance companies. The most famous
risk-sharing operation is Lloyd’s of London, an association in which different
insurance companies underwrite a fraction of an insurance policy. In Turkey the reinsurance activities also widely used, there is many companies that deal with
other insurance companies by reinsurancing. As an example we could give Marsh Reinsurance
that give reinsurance service and reinsure into the reinsurance companies abroad
directly or through reinsurance brokers. There is also the Association of
Insurance and Reinsurance Companies of Turkey located in Istanbul.
Pension
Funds: in
performing the financial intermediation function of asset transformation,
pension funds provide the public with another kind of protection: income
payments on retirement.
There is an important
increase in share of pension funds due to tax policy, because employer
contribution to an employee pension plans are tax-deductive. Furthermore, tax
policy has also encouraged employee contribution to pension funds by making
them tax-deductible as well as enabling self-employed individuals to open up
their own tax-sheltered pension plans, Keogh plans, and individuals retirement
accounts (IRAs). Because the benefits paid out of the pension fund each year
are highly predictable, pension funds invest in long-term securities, with the
bulk of their asset holdings in bonds, stocks, and long-term mortgages. The key
management issues for pension funds revolve around asset management: Pension
fund managers try to hold assets with high expected returns and lower risk
through diversification.
The structure of
pension funds in Turkey changed over time, affected by global changes in
economic world. For example in the past, pension funds hold about 99% of their
funds in government bonds and only 1% in stocks. But currently, when stock
performs outstanding performance, pension funds hold about 25% of their funds
in stocks. Pension funds are now the dominant players in the stock market.
Pension funds in Turkey are two types: private pension funds and public pension plans. Private pension funds
are administrated by the banks, a life insurance companies, or a pension fund manager.
Anadolu Emeklilik is live example for private pension funds. SSK, Emekli Sandigi
are public pension plans, that are give services to public workers.
Beside this, pension
funds are highly related with the trust. Households will not save their money
in banks, pension funds, or other financial institutions if they have no trust
to them. The government plays here an important role in protection household
savings and regulating the structural work of financial institutions. The legal
legislation, like FDIC increases the trust of people to the banks and others. As
long as households trust to private pension funds they deal with them.
Many turkish banks
also gives private pension fund services (Ak Bank- Ak Emeklilik), and outstanding
increase in pension funds rate is also related to people trust to the turkish
banking, as well as to the pension funds.
Finance
Companies: Financial companies acquire
funds by issuing commercial paper or stocks and bond or borrowing from banks, and
they use the proceeds to make loans (often for small amounts) that are
particularly well suited to consume and business needs. The financial intermediation
process of finance companies can be described by saying that they borrow in
large amounts, but often lend in small amounts- a process quite different from
that of banking institutions, which collect deposits in small amounts and often
make large loans. There are three types of financial companies in Turkey: sales, consumers, and business.
1.
Sales Finance Companies are owned by a particular retailing or a manufacturing company and
make loans to consumers to purchase items from that company. Sales finance
companies compete directly with banks for consumer loans and are used by
consumers because loans can frequently be obtained faster and more conveniently
at the location where an item is purchased.
2.
Consumer Finance Companies make loans to consumers to by particular items such as furniture or
home appliance, to make home improvements, or to help refinance small debts. Consumer
finance companies are separate corporations, or are owned by banks. Typically,
these companies make loans to consumers who can not obtain credit from other
sources and charge higher interest rates.
3.
Business Finance Companies provide specialized forms of credit to businesses by making loans
and purchasing accounts receivable at a discount; this provision of credit is
called factoring. Besides factoring business finance companies also specialize
in leasing equipment, which they purchase and then lease to businesses for a
set number of years.
Mutual Funds:
Mutual Funds are financial intermediaries that pool
the resources of many small investors by selling them shares and using the
proceeds to by securities. Through the asset transformation process of issuing
shares in small denominations and buying large blocks of securities, mutual
funds can take advantage of volume discounts on brokerage commissions and
purchase diversified holdings (portfolios) of securities. Mutual funds allow
the small investors to obtain the benefits of lower transaction costs in
purchasing securities and to take advantage of the reduction of risk by
diversifying the portfolio of securities held. Many mutual funds are run by
brokerage firms, but others are run by banks, or independent investment
advisers.
Mutual funds
have seen a large increase in their market share due primarily to the booming
stock market. Another source of growth was the specialization of mutual funds
in dept instruments.
Funds that
purchase common stocks may specialize even further and invest solely in foreign
securities or in specialized industries, such as energy or high technology.
Funds that purchase debt instruments may specialize further in corporate, government,
or tax- exempt bonds, or in long-term or short-term securities.
Mutual Funds are
primarily held by households (around 80%) with the rest hold by other financial
institutions and non financial businesses.
Banks
Depository
institutions, or simply banks are the most important of all financial
intermediaries and are generally the first place we go when we decide to borrow
money to buy a car, or go to holiday.
Bank strategy
simply is collecting small deposits and making big loans, and as all economic
units pursues the goal to maximize their profits. Generally banks and Turkish
banks as well have four primary concerns: the first is to make sure that the
bank has enough ready cash to pay its depositors when there are deposit
outflows, that is, when deposits are lost because depositors make withdrawals
and demand payment. To keep enough cash on hand, the bank must engage liquidity
management, the acquiring assets to meet the banks obligation to depositors.
Second, the bank
must pursue the acceptably low level of risk by acquiring assets that have a
low rate of default and by diversifying asset holdings. The third concern is to
acquire funds at low cost, and finally they must decide the amount of capital
they should maintain and then acquire the needed capital.
The banking sector constitutes a great part of the Turkish financial
system. Many of the transactions and activities taking place in both money and
capital markets are carried out by banks. Turkey’s financial system and its
banking sector are virtually synonymous as a consequence of the country’s
economic and historical development.
There are a number of factors that give banking its prominent
role in the Turkish economy. These are:
-The economic structure peculiar to Turkey,
-The choice to turn resources into long-term investments through
the banks for the objectives targeted in the development plans and annual
programs, and the establishment of banks by the state to finance certain
sectors,
-Extensive application of continental European banking
practices as a model in the legal structure of the banking system and
-The lack of a full-fledged capital market.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The development of the Turkish banking sector can be analyzed within
six separate periods, which differ as to policy and method:
The
Period of the Money-changers and the Galata bankers (pre-1847):
During this period, all quasi-banking activities were carried out by
money-changers. The Galata bankers consisted mostly of the ethnic-minorities in
Istanbul.
The Period
of Foreign Banks (1847-1908):
Since the financial situation of the Ottoman Empire deteriorated
after the Crimean war, the Empire faced the need for external financial
support. Representatives of several foreign banks came to Istanbul with the
purpose of extending credits to the Empire at high interest rates. The Ottoman
Bank (Osmanlı Bankası) was established in 1856. Its head office was
in London and served as the Central Bank until the 1930s.
Development
of National Banking and Implementation of Etatism (1909-1944)
The years following the proclamation of the Second Constitution
(1908) gave rise to the national banking movement, which was a reaction to
foreign banking.
Twenty-four national banks were established in Istanbul and Anatolia between the years 1908 and 1923. However, foreign banks continued to
dominate banking activities due to the consecutive wars (1911-1922),
capitulations granted to foreigners and scarcity of national capital.
In 1923, the first National Economic Congress held in Izmir dealt with a large number of economic problems that the country would have to solve.
The Congress took the decision that banks would be established to finance the
main sectors of the economy. T. İş Bankası (1924), Sanayi ve
Maadin Bankası (1925), and Emlak ve Eytam Bankası (1927) were
established to provide commercial, industrial and housing credits,
respectively.
However, the adverse effects of the Great Depression on the
balance of payments and the lack of domestic capital called for a
government-supported economic development policy in subsequent years. As a
result of this policy, six state banks were established in the 1930s, including
the Central Bank of the Turkish Republic.
Development
of Private Banks (1945-1960)
Despite the adverse effects of the Second World War, a significant
rate of growth and industrialization was achieved with the support of the newly
established state banks, which created a tremendous increase in capital stock
of the private sector.
Beginning in the early 1950s, etatism weakened because of
positive developments in the private sector, expansion of international
cooperation and transition to a multi-party political system. A more liberal
and private sector oriented policy was adopted in the following years, and as a
result, more than 30 private banks were established by 1960.
Planned
Development Period (1961-1979)
A new “planned development” policy was adopted in the beginning of
the 1960s. According to this system, the state would administer the economy and
issue recommendations to the private sector through five-year plans prepared by
the government to cover all sectors.
As recommended in the plans, several development and
investment banks were established to finance various sectors in the 1960s and
1970s such as the Tourism Bank (Turizm Bankası) in 1960, Industrial
Investment Bank (Sinai Yatırım Bankası A.Ş.) in 1963, State
Investment Bank (Devlet Yatırım Bankası) in 1964, and the State
Industry and Worker’s Investment Bank (Devlet Sanayi ve İşçi
Yatırım Bankası) in 1975.
Liberalization
and Internationalization in Banking (post-1980)
A new liberal economic policy began to be implemented in January
1980, which aimed at integration with world markets by establishing a free
market economy. As a reflection of this policy, the 1980s witnessed continuous
legal, structural and institutional changes and developments in the Turkish
banking sector. During these years, a series of reforms were adopted to promote
financial market development. The main aim of these reforms was to increase the
efficiency of the financial system by fostering competition among banks.
In this context, interest and foreign exchange rates were
liberalized, new entrants to the banking system were permitted and foreign
banks were encouraged to operate in Turkey. Turkish banks intensified their
business relations abroad either by purchasing banks in foreign countries or by
opening branches and representative offices. The liberalization of foreign
exchange regulations increased the foreign exchange transactions in the banks.
Beginning in 1984, the special finance institutions, operating according to
Islamic banking principles, also became part of the financial system.
The Interbank Money Market, which is administrated by the
Central Bank, was established in 1986 with the purpose of regulating liquidity
in the banking system.
In addition, legal and institutional arrangements were
introduced to foster the development of the capital market. As a result, banks
began to provide additional services such as consultancy and trading in
securities, underwriting fund management, establishing mutual funds and financial
consultation.
Besides diversifying their services, banks improved their
technological infrastructure by extensive use of computer systems; began
employing more qualified human resources; and at the same time put an emphasis
on training programs.
LEGAL
FRAMEWORK AND SUPERVISION OF THE BANKING SYSTEM
Banks are institutions by which funds
accumulating in the economy are collected and channeled to investors. This
makes the public supervision of banks essential.
All banks in Turkey are subject to the Banks Act and to the
provisions of other laws pertaining to banks. The new Banks Act No.4389, which
brought substantial differences, was issued on June 23rd, 1999. Prior to the changes in the Banks Act, the Undersecretariat of the Treasury and the
Central Bank had been the two main regulatory and supervisory bodies in the
banking sector. With the new Act, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency
(BRSA) were formed, which had financial and administrative autonomy. The
mission of the Agency is to safeguard the rights and benefits of depositors and
create the proper environment in which banks and financial institutions can
operate with market discipline, in a healthy, efficient and globally
competitive manner, thus contributing to the achievement of long-run economic
growth and stability of the country.
With the establishment of the BRSA, the Savings Deposits
Insurance Fund (SDIF), which had been under the authority of the Central Bank,
began to operate under the administration of the BRSA.
However, with the enactment of Act No. 5020 on December 26, 2003, the management of the SDIF was separated from the management of the BRSA.
The decision-making body of the Agency is the Banking
Regulation and Supervision Board (BRSB), which is appointed by the Council of
Ministers and consists of seven members. Following the appointment of the
members of the Board, the Agency commenced its operations as of August 31, 2000.
Banks in Turkey have the status of joint-stock companies and
are subject to general controls under the provisions of the Turkish Commercial
Code and of various tax laws. Besides, banks are subject to special supervision
by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. As the representative body of
the banking sector, the Banks Association of Turkey (BAT) aims at protecting
and promoting the professional interests of its members.
The BRSA exercises its supervisory authority on a direct and
ongoing basis through the Board of Sworn Bank Auditors who is responsible for
on-site examination of the banks in terms of legal considerations and financial
soundness. Additionally, the banks’ financial statements are audited by
external auditors in accordance with internationally accepted accounting
principles. Banks are also examined by their own auditors, who are required to
submit quarterly reports to the BRSA.
Recently, the supervisory system has been further strengthened
by legislative arrangements and a number of decisions taken in accordance with
the standards of the prudential regulation exercised by the international
banking community and in general covered the following banking related areas:
· Foreign exchange
exposures,
· Capital adequacy,
· Internal control and risk management,
· Lending limits
· Conditions to be met by bank
owners,
· Bank ownership control in
transfer of shares,
· Consolidated and cross-border
supervision of banks,
·
Accounting standards for financial disclosure purposes,
· Prudential reporting and loan loss provisioning.
Moreover,
during 2003 and 2004, several improvements have been realized in terms of
regulative and legislative framework of the Turkish banking system;
· SDIF has been separated from the administration of the BRSA and its
legislative framework has been renewed for the collection non performing loans
from the debtors of SDIF banks.
· In July 2004, savings deposit insurance was limited to 50 billion TL
(50 thousand New Turkish Lira (YTL), approximately 37.250 USD), which is
expected to decrease the moral hazard effect.
· Risk based deposit insurance system has been settled.
· In order to increase intermediation costs, stamp duties and charges
on loans were removed, deposit insurance premiums were decreased considerably
and special transaction taxes on deposits were lifted. Furthermore the
government has eliminated the Resource Utilization Fund on commercial
loans.
· Accounting standards has been brought mostly in lines with
International Accounting Standards.
Also some
legislative changes and new targets are expected to realize in 2005;
· The new banking act, draft act on financial services, prepared by
BRSA is expected to become into force. The draft act aims at setting a
competitive environment, reducing the risks and bringing transparency in the
banking sector.
· In order to improve the efficiency of supervision of the banking
sector, risk based supervision model is being designed by BRSA.
· Given the recent technological innovations in financial sector more
emphasis will be put into IT based audit systems.
· A new draft law on credit cards is being prepared by BRSA.
· It is expected that regulation and supervision power of non bank
financial institutions to be transferred from Treasury of Turkey to BRSA
THE RECENT
BANKING SECTOR RESTRUCTURING PROGRAM
Following the November 2000 and February 2001 crises, which had
negative impacts both on the economy and the banking system, an extensive
streamlining plan; Banking Sector Restructuring Program was started and
announced to the public in May 2001 by the BRSA. The restructuring program was
based on the following main pillars: (1) Restructuring of state banks, (2)
Prompt resolution of SDIF banks, (3) Strengthening of private banks, and (4)
Strengthening the regulatory and supervisory framework. Progresses achieved in
these fields are presented below:
1) Restructuring of State Banks; Financial restructuring of state banks
was completed, and correspondingly they began to make profits. Similarly, with the requirements of modern banking and international
competition, significant steps have been
taken within the framework of operational restructuring. Besides, the
number of branches of the state banks which was 2,494 as of December 2000 was reduced to 2.236 as of December
2004; and the number of personnel which was 61,601 was reduced to 39.454.
2) Resolution of SDIF Banks; 21 banks were taken over by the SDIF
between 1997 and 2003. After the BRSA began to operate
on August 31, 2000 (in addition to the existing eight banks) the administration
of 13 banks was assumed by the SDIF according to the resolutions of the BRSA.
Of these 21 banks, 13 banks were merged; five banks were sold to domestic and
foreign investors; and the licenses of two banks were revoked. By the end of
December 2004 there was one bank which remained under the administration of the
SDIF, Bayındırbank, the
bridge bank for the resolution of the SDIF banks.
3) Strengthening the Private Banking System; Within the scope of the program focused on private banks, primary
steps were taken towards strengthening the capital structures of private banks
with their own resources and limiting market risks. 25 private banks were
subjected to a three-phase audit process. Cash capital increases, correction of
provisions set aside for non–performing loans, positive changes engendered in
the market risk and valuation of securities were taken into account during
these evaluations
and accordingly, three banks were determined to have
capital requirements. The capital requirements of these banks were provided
either by their shareholders and or by the allocation of subordinated loans
given by the SDIF upon BRSA decisions. With the improvement observed in
profitability, the average capital adequacy ratio of the private banks was
recorded at 28.2% as of December 2004.
4) Strengthening the regulatory and
supervisory framework
Concurrently with
the financial and operational restructuring of the banking sector, significant
progress has been made in legal and institutional regulations. Within this
context, regulations were issued to prevent risk concentration in loans, limit
participation of banks in non-bank financial institutions and ensure
preparation and disclosure of the balance sheets of the banks in compliance
with international accounting standards. Among many other structural reforms,
the banking reform intended to upgrade and modernize the current rules and in
general covered the following banking related areas: capital adequacy, foreign
exchange exposure, internal control and risk management, deposit guarantee
schemes, accounting standards for financial disclosure purposes, prudential
reporting and loan-loss provisions.
As a
result, the restructuring program resulted in the following in the banking
sector:
- The banking
sector entered a consolidation process.
- The
significance of state-owned and SDIF banks in the system has declined.
- Financial
risks in the banking sector have been reduced to manageable levels.
- The capital
structure of the sector has been strengthened.
- The sector has
re-entered a growth period.
- The
profitability performance of private banks has improved and state-owned
banks have started to generate profit.
At the end of September 2004, the Turkish banks numbers were as
follow:
Number of Banks
And lastly,
let’s say few words on this table. As we can see, after banking crisis in
November 2000 and February 2001, the numbers of commercial banks as well as all
other banks has declined significantly. If in 1999 number of commercial banks
were 62, in 2004 it has declined to 35. These crisis’s has huge negative impact
on Turkish banking system, but nevertheless, it is still take the bull by the
horns, and as many foreign banking giants as HSBC, Citibank, Fortis have
entered the Turkish banking market it is sounds like it’s has a potential
capacity and bright future.
References:
www.tsrsb.org.tr
F.S. Mishkin
“The Economics of Money, Banking and Financial Markets” Colombia University Press
http://www.byegm.gov.tr
http://www.sigortacigazetesi.com.tr
http://www.die.gov.tr
http://www.marsh.com.tr