A New Commitment Regarding Foreign Currency Has Been Brought to Credit Transactions

As you know, the dollar has experienced movements in recent weeks that have left us all watching with amazement. The dollar, which was around 9 TL until the middle of November, reached 18 TL for a period in December. The dollar, which is currently around 11 TL, and the euro, which has similar fluctuations, pushed the citizens to invest in this direction.

In fact, there were people who took loans from banks and bought foreign currency due to the depreciation of TL. In order to prevent this way, which is considered contrary to the purpose of using the credits, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), found the remedy to get creditors to sign a letter of undertaking.

To protect the bank

The BRSA, which instructed that the loans drawn in Turkish Lira should be used to buy foreign currency in an unsuitable manner and to examine similar contradictions, put into effect a commitment to be signed when buying a loan. If a contract is signed, which is stipulated by some private banks only in commercial loans and public banks in consumer loans, the customer will not ‘make any transactions contrary to its purpose’ with the loan they use; if detected will not hold the bank responsible it declares.

Transactions that are contrary to the purpose of using the loan mentioned in the undertaking are listed as follows: “Currency and gold purchase transactionsinvestments to provide financial returns such as time deposits, repo, stocks, closing other undue credit risks, transferring abroad and to crypto assets or transfer it out of the capital market.”

Under free market conditions, no sanctions are imposed on credit holders who carry out these contradictory transactions. The function of the undertaking is to save banks from being penalized for making false loans.