Central Bank mulls to distribute profit early

ANKARA

Turkey’s Central Bank has announced that it will hold an extraordinary general assembly meeting on Jan. 20.

According to the invitation the bank sent out to shareholders, one of the items on the assembly meeting will be advance distribution of profits from 2019 profits.

It added that the agenda also included all legal reserves accumulated before 2019 would be added to last year’s profit total and also distributed, primarily to the Treasury ministry.

The Central Bank used to hold its general assembly meetings in April. But, In January last year, the bank also held an extraordinary general assembly meeting and approved an early transfer of its 2018 profit.

In 2018, the Central Bank posted a net profit of nearly 56.3 billion Turkish liras (around $9.42 billion) in 2018. The bank’s net profit surged over 200 percent year-on-year.

On a separate note, Anadolu Agency reported on Jan. 3 that the bank decided to apply a commission on foreign currency required reserves.

The bank will charge an annual 0.0025 percent on required reserves for non-U.S. dollar-denominated deposits and participation funds that are held in euros and U.S. dollars, the agency said.

The move aims to support the reverse dollarization process in deposit/participation funds.

The new practice will begin as of Jan. 10, sources told Anadolu Agency.