Central Bank announces more steps to boost lira deposits

ANKARA

Türkiye’s Central Bank has announced new measures to bolster the Turkish Liras deposits in the financial system.

The bank last month started to roll back the FX-protected deposit accounts scheme, ending an implementation that previously stipulated a target for conversion from foreign currency deposits to FX-protected deposits.

On Sept. 18, the bank announced additional measures designed to increase the share of Turkish Lira deposits.

According to the instruction sent to local lenders, the targeted monthly rise in the share of lira deposits in total deposits has been raised from 2 percent to 2.5 percent.

The latest data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) show that FX-protected deposit accounts continued to decline.

The volume of FX-deposits accounts fell from 3.35 trillion liras in the week ending Sept. 1 to 3.33 trillion liras as of Sept. 8, while total deposits with local banks grew from 12.9 trillion liras to more than 13 trillion liras.

In a statement in August, the Central Bank said that the FX-protected deposit accounts-related steps were part of the simplification process.

“The regulations are intended to increase Turkish lira deposits while decreasing FX-protected deposits by ensuring the transition from FX-protected accounts to Turkish lira deposits,” the bank said at that time.

The Central Bank on Sept. 18 also increased the invoice exemption limit for export and SME (small- and medium-sized company) loans from a previous 50,000 liras to 250,000 lira ($9,300) lira in order to ease the credit flow.