Turkish Lira-denominated loans extended for the repayment of domestic debt securities issued by private sector entities other than banks and maturing by the end of the year will be exempt from credit growth limits, according to a Central Bank directive issued to banks.
With this regulation, the Central Bank aims to support macrofinancial stability and liquidity management.
Under the measure, the central bank seeks to prevent potential difficulties arising from credit growth limits in the access of highly creditworthy issuers to bank financing, while also facilitating issuers’ liquidity management. The exemption will apply to debt securities maturing by the end of the year.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on Oct. 20 that the total size of the private sector bond market stands at 1 trillion liras, while only 26.5 billion liras of that amount is due to mature by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Capital Markets Board (SPK) has decided to raise the minimum financial asset requirement for qualified investor status from 10 million liras to 50 million liras, while increasing the minimum transaction volume criterion from 5 million liras to 25 million liras.
The decision comes after the troubles in the fund market, which affected 455,000 investors. Amid the problems, SPK in September ordered the liquidation of 131 investment funds, with combined assets of more than 900 billion liras.
