Turkey yesterday relaxed limits imposed on its banks' foreign exchange swaps and similar instruments, after last month limiting the transactions to 25 percent of a bank's equity.

The BDDK banking regulator said the new limit for instruments with maturities between 90-360 days would be set at 75 percent of a bank's equity, while transactions with maturities of more than 360 days would be set at 50 percent.

Last month, the BDDK cut the limit for Turkish banks' forex swap, spot and forward transactions with foreign banks to 25 percent of a bank's equity from 50 percent.