‘Savings fund should not pay offshore accounts’

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Şakir Ercan Gül (L), head of Turkey Savings Deposit Insurance Fund, says Turkey should not be paying back the account holders for their loss at the seized banks.

Turkey should not be facilitating payments to offshore accounts at the banks seized during the country’s 2001 banking crisis, according to Turkey Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).

Some assets of the seized banks would be sold through auctions to be announced soon, TMSF head Şakir Ercan Gül told a press meeting yesterday.

“Turkish state should not be paying back the account holders for their loss at the seized banks,” Gül said.
The total amount of the offshore accounts was nearly $150 million. Accounts were held at Efektifbank Offshore Ltd, Egebank Offshore and Yurt Security Offshore Bank.

TMSF head said the state could not be held responsible, as the account holders authorized the offshore transactions with higher risk for a better interest rate.

TMSF collected nearly $20.03 billion through the owners and shareholders of the seized banks, bank assets and obliged individual and corporate customers by the end of November. He said there will be nearly $2.21 billion collected from the owners and shareholders of the seized banks.

TMSF has granted an extension of the end of January for Halis Toprak, owner of the Toprak Holding, to pay his debts to the fund, Gül said. “All the assets of the holding will be sold in February if the payment could not be made before the deadline.”

TMSF will put Ada Securities out to tender this month.

Gül said Arab Turk Bank (A&T) had no problems regarding its financial position. The Turkish government froze the assets of Libyan Foreign Bank, the biggest shareholder in A&T Bank in June, in accordance with a United Nations Security Council resolution.