Currently, Turkey's financial services industry is in an early stage of development with credit markets dominated by banking and capital markets dominated by Government securities. Longstanding macro-economic instability and inflation have discouraged investment in financial assets and crowded out funding for the private sector. The resulting lack of depth and breadth has made the financial sector in Turkey vulnerable to shocks resulting in repeated crises, and has diminished its intermediation efficiency. This study analyzes the state of development and prospects for future growth of Turkish non-bank financial institutions and capital markets. It identifies the key policy issues that should be addressed in order to develop non-bank financial institutions in Turkey. Some of the themes included in the discussion and policy recommendations are: mobilizing savings; building an institutional investor base comprising insurance companies, private pension funds, and mutual funds; developing equity markets, debt markets, and derivative markets; developing leasing, factoring and venture capital companies; and strengthening confidence in financial markets through improved corporate governance.

Longstanding macroeconomic instability, and inflation in Turkey, have discouraged investment in financial assets, and a persistently high public sector borrowing requirement has crowded funding for the private sector. Notwithstanding, the Government's ongoing stabilization, and structural reforms, are improving the prospects for the development of financial services, though a series of policy issues should be addressed. This study identifies such issues, and formulates recommendations to better address them. Chapter I outlines the advantages of a broad based, diversified financial services industry, lays out the evidence of a clear correlation between financial system development, and per capita income, and, analyzes the outlook for such financial services industry over the next five years. Chapter II, in addressing the mobilization of savings, describes the extent to which macroeconomic uncertainty, chronically high inflation, and ill-suited tax policies have driven significant savings into real estate, gold, and overseas bank accounts. Recommendations suggest the development of a tax system that creates a level-playing field for investment assets, encouraging investments in longer-term/risk-based instruments, among others. Building an institutional investor base is addressed in Chapter III, where key issues are identified for developing the insurance, private pension and mutual fund industries. Chapters IV, V, and VI describe current developments of the equity, debt and derivatives markets, focusing on best practices to further develop venture capital, and, how to strengthen, and improve corporate governance, accounting and auditing standards. Finally, the need to rationalize the atomized oversight structure is recommended, where regulatory agencies should be responsible for supervising an increasingly integrated financial services industry, in addition to considerations on developing a holding company regime for financial, and mixed conglomerates.

This volume provides a comprehensive study of Turkey’s financial transformation into one of the most dynamic, if not trouble-free, emerging capitalisms. While this financial evolution has underwritten Turkey’s dramatic economic growth, it has done so without ameliorating the persistently exploitative and unequal social structures that characterize neoliberalism today. This edited volume, written by an interdisciplinary range of political economists, critically examines Turkey’s financial transformation, contributing to debates on the nature of peripheral financialization. Eschewing economistic interpretations, The Political Economy of Financial Transformation in Turkey underscores both the quantitative significance of exponential growth in financial flows and investments, and the qualitative importance of the state’s institutional restructuring around financial imperatives. The book presents today’s reality as historically rooted. By understanding the choices made under the new Republic (from 1923 onwards), one can better locate the changes launched as a newly liberalizing society (since 1980). Likewise, the decisions made in response to Turkey’s 2001 financial crisis spurred a tectonic break in state–market–society financial relations. The waves of change have reached far and wide: from corporate strategies of accumulation and growth to small- and medium-sized enterprises’ strategies of financial survival; from how finance has penetrated the provisioning of housing to how households have become financialized. Put together, one grasps the complexity and historicity of the power of contemporary finance. One also sees that the changes made have not been class-neutral, but have entailed elevating the interests of major capital groups, particularly financial capital, above the interests of the poor and workers in Turkey. Nor are these changes constrained to its national borders, as what transpires domestically contributes to the making of a financialized world market. Through this ‘Made in Turkey’ approach the contributions in this volume thus challenge dominant understandings of financialization, which are derived from the advanced capitalisms, by sharing the specificity of emerging capitalisms such as Turkey.

World Bank Discussion Paper No. 362. There has been tremendous growth worldwide in the mobilization of financial resources outside traditional banking systems. Channeled mainly through capital markets, such rapid financial diversification is posing new challenges for regulators in many emerging markets. This document describes the various aspects and implications of this growth, reviews the regulatory framework adopted in some mature market economies, including the United States and the European Union, and discusses regulatory issues in emerging markets.