The Saving Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) announced Monday that it has put up for sale the Gülen-linked Bank Asya, after it seized the bank and its shares belonging to 122 real and judicial shareholders in February, 2015.
After the takeover by the TMSF, Bank Asya's actual financial situation was revealed. Accordingly, the bank had been hiding its sunken credit. That credit rate, which was 3.9 percent under the previous management September 2013, rose to 33.4 percent - tenfold higher than the banking sector's average, in the same period in 2015. While the sunken credit totaled TL 2.2 billion ($740 million), 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 TL1.2 billion in 2015. Upon inspection of the actual amount of sunken credit, the cumulative losses of Bank Asya totaled TL 1.6 billion.
Believed to be the main financial institution of the controversial Gülen Movement and its affiliated companies, Bank Asya's financial situation deteriorated as Turkish authorities started probing the shadowy organization. The bank started reporting huge losses throughout 2015, while its shares were suspended from trading in Borsa Istanbul (BIST) on Sept. 26, 2014 due to high volatility threatening investors and to prevent further losses. Starting from February, the Banking Supervisory and Regulatory Authority (BDDK) initially seized the shares of the bank belonging to Gülen-linked companies, while a complete takeover came on May 30. Irregular monetary transactions and loans to Gülen-linked companies and a lack of transparency in conducting business were cited among the key reasons for the bank's seizure.
The BDDK said in May 2015 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 pose 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 with aims to topple the democratically elected government through investigations launched by its members in the police and judiciary using fake evidence and illegal wiretapping.
