Finance minister Mehmet Simsek announced that three Turkish lenders have recently been warned for their lack of effective collaboration with the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), which seeks to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Highlighting the importance of bank’s responsibilities in the fight against terrorism financing and money laundering, Simsek stated that three banks were given warnings because they failed to meet
MASAK’s standards regarding those responsibilities.
Simsek underlined that
MASAK scrutinizes the number of suspicious transactions in bank accounts as well as technical equipment used to detect such transactions, adding that the board also checks whether banks report as many suspicious transactions as would be expected given their yearly business volumes and customer profiles.
Maintaining that
MASAK conducts this evaluation every year, Simsek said this year’s evaluation has just been completed.
Ziraat Bank REIT and Public Offering Possible in 2015
Ziraat Bank general manager Huseyin Aydın disclosed in a newspaper interview that Ziraat Bank is willing to establish a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in 2015. Aydın also explained that Ziraat is aware there is an expectation on the market for public offering of Ziraat Bank for a while. According to Aydin, the public offering will be made when shareholders of Ziraat Bank request such offering. “Besides that, we are ready,” he added.
Ali Ceylan is a partner at Baspinar & Partners Law Firm. He can be contacted at
[email protected]
.