Turkey's banking watchdog seizes control of Gülenist Bank Asya

The Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) has seized the Gülenist bank, Bank Asya, and shares belonging to 122 real and judicial shareholders of the bank, including Kaynak Holding, Ortadoğu Tekstil and Forum İnşaat, have been transferred to the TMSF.

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (BDDK) passed the decision during their meeting on Tuesday and decided that 63 percent of the preferential shares will be transferred to the TMSF. Meanwhile, the shares of 122 A group shareholders of the bank have been assigned to the TMSF, excluding the rights of shareholders to receive equities from the bank.

Some of the shareholders that have been deprived of their shareholding rights are known to be financers of the Gülenist Movement, such as Naci Tosun (Kaynak Holding's affiliate Sürat Basım), Ali Akbulut (Ortadoğu Tekstil) and Forum İnşaat. Ortadoğu Tekstil owned 4.89 percent of the bank, Forum Bank owned 3.85 percent and Sürat Basım owned 2.70 percent.

After the shares were transferred to the TMSF, nine people were assigned to the board of directors. According to the statement issued by Bank Asya to the Public Disclosure Platform, Mehmet Ali İslamoğlu was appointed as chairman, Aydın Gündoğdu as assistant chairman and Mehmet Ali Gökçe, Bedri Sayın, Abdullah Güzeldülger, İsmail Güler, Ahmet Mutlu, İdris Turan İlter and Zülfikar Kanberoğlu as board members.

During its meeting on Tuesday, the BDDK evaluated the results of the inspections it had conducted on the partnership structure of the bank. "Because the institution has not presented a partnership structure that is transparent and open enough to allow for effective regulation … partnership rights have been transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF)," said the BDDK in a statement published on its website.

The BDDK's decision was based on paragraph five of Article 18 of Banking Code no. 5411, which states that shareholders who own qualified shares should meet the requirements sought for founders, and if such shareholders can no longer meet these requirements, they will lose their shareholding rights except for their right to receive equities. In this case, the shares of such shareholders are then transferred to the TMSF. Bank Asya had required 185 of its real and judicial shareholders to submit information and documents to prove that they meet the requirements applied for founders, but only 63 out of 185 shareholders presented the requested documents. As a result, the BDDK decided to transfer the shares of 122 shareholders to the fund. Now 122 shareholders of the bank will not be able to use their shareholding rights, which in the end means a loss of revenue for the bank. However, such shareholders may retrieve their shareholding rights if they submit the required documents.

Upon the decision, the financial police raided Bank Asya's headquarters. Before the raid, the police had the plans of the building and disconnected the Internet to prevent any information from being leaked.

The TMSF released a written statement regarding the issue yesterday. "Due to the lack of precautions in the banking industry, many banks went bankrupt, which has caused many citizens to suffer as well as greatly damaged the Turkish economy and the banking sector during the 2011 economic crisis. Therefore, the related articles of the Banking Code have been applied in order to prevent the repeat of a similar crisis, to prevent a new bank from being added to the list of bankrupt banks, to protect the shareholders, customers, the banking sector and the Turkish economy. The necessary precautions have been taken and the members of the board of directors and the general manager of Asya Katılım Bankası A.Ş. have been replaced. With a more experienced and better qualified management, Asya Katılım Bankası A.Ş. will continue its banking operations in a stronger manner," said the statement.

The same article of the Banking Code was applied to Arap Türk Bankası A.Ş. in 2011, and 62.37 percent of the shareholding rights to Arap Türk Bank owned by Libyan Foreign Bank were transferred to the TMSF according to decrees no. 1870 and no. 1973 of the United Nations Security Council and decree no. 2011/2001 of the Cabinet.

On the transfer of Bank Asya's management to the TMSF, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said the decision was a quantitative one, which is not open to comment. Moreover, speculation concerning financial markets has now been resolved with the decision taken.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş also said that the decision was not a political one but mainly due to Bank Asya's negligence to meet the technical requirements. "If Bank Asya had presented the required documents to ensure a more transparent partnership structure within the time limits, such a decision would never have been passed," Kurtulmuş emphasized.

The Gülen Movement is led by U.S.-based imam Fethullah Gülen. Gülen's followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions to gain control of state mechanisms and illegal wiretapping, forgery of official documents and spying.