Things are changing in the Turkish banking sector with the country’s government having just declared legal changes to how people and companies can access their capital. It is also changing the laws around debt collecting.
The Ankara government has made changes to its Law on Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, Banking Law, Capital Market, Financial Leasing and Factoring and Income Tax Law.
Kicking off by looking at the new rules regarding repatriation of assets, people and organizations will now be able to access assets like money, gold and other forms of capital held abroad provided these have been declared to the country’s banks and brokerage firms before New Year’s Eve 2019. Similarly, assets that are not declared yet can also be used freely if they are declared to the tax offices before December 31 2019.
The Grand National Assembly of Turkey has also made changes to the rule regarding financial restructuring. Debtors will now be able to use some new tools to make it easier to pay back their loans. They can now take precautions like postponing the loan maturity date, providing new loans and decreasing the interest rate. This is in regards to loans owed to banks, financial lease, factoring and financing companies, according to Mondaq, the regulations news site.
Debtors can now also have their status determined by independent audit firms, expertise institutions and creditors. Moreover, foreign banks and financial institutions can now also be recognized as creditors by the law.
The rules regarding banks roles changed to. The country’s banks previously had to monitor and maintain reserves with respect to the loans and other receivables as a safeguard against the kind of losses that could stem from them. The new rules do away with the receivables part and banks now only have to monitor and maintain reserves for loans.
The changes were first announced on July 16 but has now come into force. The amendments were made to boosting the country’s “deteriorating budget”, according to Reuters, the news agency. Turkey’s deficit at the time corresponded to roughly $13.82bn in the first six months of 2019.
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