IslamicFinance.de

Shares in Bank Asya plummeted by nearly 20 per cent on Tuesday, reaching a new low, after Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the country's banking watchdog to “make a decision” on the beleaguered Islamic lender's future.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks not to use credit cards, accusing banks of locking people into poverty with excessive fees. He said banks were growing rich on high commissions and urged people to live within their means. Erdogan and members of his government have accused speculators and a "high-interest-rate lobby" of stoking volatility in financial markets to make a quick profit at the expense of the Turkish economy. The comments opened a new front in the verbal attacks Erdogan has periodically made against the financial community, which is betting the country's central bank will raise borrowing costs next week to steady the ailing lira currency. In fact, the central bank may raise rates next week to stem a slide in the Turkish currency which would make the lira and lira-denominated assets such as Turkish government bonds more attractive to foreign investors, as well as pushing up commercial banks' lending rates.