IslamicFinance.de

Turkey's Bank Asya on Tuesday posted a third-quarter net loss on loan provisions and a shrinking balance sheet but said its operations were healthy despite political turmoil that has surrounded it for much of the year. The Islamic lender fell to a 301 million lira ($133 million) net loss from a 60 million lira profit a year earlier. Assets of 16.5 billion lira at the end of the third quarter were down 40 percent from the end of 2013, while deposits almost halved to 10.07 billion over the same period. The bank continued its operations with a capital adequacy ratio of 18.32 percent, despite a 9-month loss due to higher loan provisions as part of efforts to increase asset quality, Chief Executive Ahmet Beyaz said.

Ahmet Beyaz, the chief executive of Turkey’s government-besieged Bank Asya, says his bank is the victim of a political campaign waged by Turkey’s powerful president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Beyaz and his executive vice-president Feyzullah Egriboyun claim the repeated attacks on the bank clearly constitute a crime under Turkey’s strict banking legislation. The Turkish president has denied any orchestrated campaign against Bank Asya. He went on to say "this bank has already failed", without naming Bank Asya. Such claims are wrong, Beyaz says, insisting Bank Asya is among the three strongest banks in Turkey, boasting a capital adequacy ratio at about 20%. Bank Asya supporters argue that the Erdogan attacks on Bank Asya pose a systemic risk to the wider Turkish banking system.

Bank Asya clients are battling help the Turkish lender against what they say is a government-orchestrated bid to scuttle it. Turkish social networking sites are full of customer’s notices to raise funds to “Save Bank Asya from sinking!” The Islamic lender has more than a million deposit-holding customers and 282 branches. President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an targeted it as part of his attacks on the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. Erdo?an has long accused Gülen - now based in the United States - of seeking to overthrow him.

Turkish authorities haven't responded to pleas by Bank Asya that they act to prevent what the bank has called unfair attacks on it, Chief Executive Officer Ahmet Beyaz said. The lack of action risks setting a dangerous precedent about the independence of regulatory agencies, he said. In his first interview since Thursday, when a spokesman for Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency said that the bank had been put under review under a law that gives the regulator broad powers over the lender, Mr. Beyaz accused BRSA officials of improperly revealing that the bank was under review.

Bank Asya plans to open 30 new branches and hiring 500 new staff members according to Ahmet Beyaz, the new General Manager. Abdullah Çelik is the general manager for Asia, who reported about the opening of the Erbil office and plans for India and Asia in general.