Turkish watchdog to revise Islamic banking regulations

The head of Turkey's banking watchdog has pledged to revise the regulations governing the Islamic banking sector to increase the popularity of the sector in the country.

Mehmet Ali Akben, president of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), said there was a strong need for changes to the rules governing what are known as "participation banks" in Turkey.

"We are trying to readjust those rules," he told an Islamic finance conference in Istanbul on Nov. 19. "We believe this system will shine on both a local and global scale in the coming years."

He said there was a demand for a financial model working under non-interest-based rules and that the BDDK had launched a separate body to analyze how Islamic finance could be developed and popularized in Turkey.

Launch of sharia boards for Islamic banking 

Akben said the BDDK would launch the required regulations enabling the system to grow further in Turkey and to become exemplary around the world. 

"In this vein, should the sharia boards be under the direction of the BDDK? ... There have plans to launch these boards under the Association of the Participation Banks, but this issue could be reassessed to determine which option is best," he said.  

 Talat Ulussever, chairman of the Borsa Istanbul exchange, called for a system in which members of the public could invest in major projects.

"We need to exert effort to establish financial structures in which Turkey's big projects in areas such as energy, communication, defense and infrastructure will be financed by people as profit is shared by them," he said.

Ulussever said the 2008 financial crisis showed that conventional finance could not absorb volatility in global markets.

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