Denizbank objects to penalty ruling

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Denizbank has filed a lawsuit agisnt Competetion’s Board decision to impose penalty on the lender for involving in competition violating acts.

Turkey’s Denizbank, one of the 12 local lenders fined by the country’s competition authority over violation of anti-trust rules, has filed a lawsuit against the board’s decision.

The bank, which was acquired by Russia’s Sberbank last year, has said it brought the case for suspension of execution of the administrative penalty imposition.

In July, Denizbank was fined 0.6 percent of their yearly revenue, equaling 23.06 million Turkish Liras, by the Competition Board, which found that the 12 defendant banks had violated market competition rules by harmonizing their tariffs on a number of items.

The bank has already paid three-fourths of the total fine, which amounted 17.3 million liras, to the Large Taxpayers Office, the lender said in Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) notice statement. 

The board’s investigation into complaints they received regarding alleged misbehavior concluded that all 12 banks investigated had adopted anti-competitive policies regarding loan and return-on-assets rates, as well as on credit card services. 12 banks were were charged to pay 1.12 billion liras in total.