The shares of Bank Asya have been gaining value on the Istanbul Stock Exchange in recent days, rising 69 percent from TL 0.54 ($0.18) per share on Monday to TL 0.91 on Thursday, following an announcement on Monday that the Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) would put the Gülen-linked bank up for sale, after the February 2015 seizure of the bank and its shares belonging to 122 real and judicial shareholders.
When the TMSF reported that 51 percent of the bank's shares would be sold, Bank Asya shares saw a rise of 19 percent on Tuesday, followed by the same increase the next day. Through these two-day gains of 41 percent, the bank compensated for the losses over the past seven months. Shares maintained the same increasing trend on Thursday, being traded at TL 0.91 on Thursday. This corresponds to a 69 percent rise in share value as compared to Monday.
Believed to be the main financial institution by which the controversial Gülen Movement and its affiliated companies operated, Bank Asya's financial situation deteriorated when Turkish authorities started probing the shadowy organization. The bank reported huge losses throughout 2015, after the Banking Supervisory and Regulatory Authority (BDDK), citing concerns that high volatility threatened investors and to prevent further losses, suspended trade of Bank Asya shares on the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) on Sep. 26, 2014. The TMSF seized the bank shares belonging to Gülen-linked companies in February 2015, and a complete takeover followed on May 30, 2015. Irregular monetary transactions and loans to Gülen-linked companies, together with a lack of transparency, were cited as key reasons for the seizure of the bank.
Following the TMSF seizure, the bank's real financial situation was uncovered, revealing that the bank had hidden sunken credit. The bank's credit rate, which was 3.9 percent in Sep. 2013, rose to 33.4 percent in the same period in 2015 - 10 times the banking sector's average. While the sunken credit totaled TL 2.2 billion, the credit volume became TL 6.5 billion in September 2015. Therefore, the bank's capital, which was TL 2.6 billion in 2013 prior to the recent revelation of deceptive actions on the part of previous bank management, dropped to TL 1.2 billion in 2015. Upon inspection of the actual amount of sunken credit, the cumulative losses of Bank Asya totaled TL 1.6 billion.
In May 2015, the BDDK said that the bank's profits and capital base had collapsed, despite being put under the scope of Article 70 of the Banking Law that regulates the BDDK's intervention in troubled banks. The BDDK added that the trouble in Bank Asya's financial structure, administration and operations posed risks to depositors, as well as the security and stability of the financial system.
The Gülen Movement is led by U.S.-based imam Fethullah Gülen. Gülen's followers are accused of infiltrating state institutions through large-scale cheating and nepotism, in service of covert aims to topple the democratically elected government through investigations launched by its members in the police and judiciary, using fake evidence backed by illegal wiretaps.
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