ISTANBUL: Turkish Islamic lender Bank Asya said yesterday it was continuing to serve customers, had passed a series of audits and was raising capital from shareholders by a quarter despite a “lynching campaign” to weaken it.
The bank said in a filing to the Istanbul stock exchange that it was raising its paid-in capital to 1.125bn lira ($508m) with cash from shareholders, from 900m lira currently. Its shares slumped to a historic low, however.
Bank Asya’s profits and capital base have tumbled since December. Bank Asya shares dropped 10 percent yesterday to a record low of 0.89 lira, extending losses of 20 percent registered on Monday, when the stock resumed trading after being suspended for more than a month.
Bank Asya said it was the subject of a deliberate campaign to undermine it and that it had passed a series of audits over recent months. “Despite this period of an economic lynching campaign in which certain circles ... have sought to reduce our bank’s strength, our bank will continue to fulfil its responsibilities towards its customers,” the statement said. “Our bank, which has one of the sector’s highest capital adequacy ratios, has fulfilled all of the requirements of the public authorities, passing audits — the intensity of which have rarely been seen — carried out over the past 10 months.”
President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by Turkish media as saying that the BDDK banking watchdog should “take steps” against Bank Asya if necessary, but did not specify what that might involve. “If clients cannot draw out deposits, it means their capital ratio is shrinking considerably. The BDDK has steps to take,” he said. Reuters
