I kinda swithered about this post - mainly because I'd hate to be considered as a scaremonger but thought hey ho - its my personal opinion so take heed or not. Your choice.
Over the past couple of months almost everyone I know in Istanbul has either spread their cash deposits over several banks or removed it from Turkey completely. I'm talking about lira accounts, not hard currencies. On the basis that the clever feckers all seemed to be getting their dosh
out of Turkey, I got a bit curious about the bank guarantees
within Turkey - so did a wee bit of research to see how your money was actually protected.
The TMSF (the folks who guarantee your money) was established in 1933 and over the years the initial guidelines have been altered to take into account prevailing conditions in respect of deposits, interest rates and the overall financial situation in Turkey. I've been trying recently to get an approximate figure for funds currently on deposit (in lira), i.e. the TMSF's exposure in the event of a major currency crisis and failed miserably. However, what I did find out is that the TMSF actually operate an insurance scheme, not a solid guarantee like the Bank of England, in respect of your funds held by banks etc. If things did go tits up, what you'll actually get back is potentially a proportion of your funds that the TMSF can meet, and as for the balance, all you will be is a preferential creditor.
Kinda reminds me of D.A.S.K.
Eventually I had a conversation with someone who knows how the scheme works, and they conceded that if the sh1t really did hit the fan then the resources available to the TMSF could be stretched.
Scary or what.
On the basis that I have 716.33TL left in my Finans account, and my OH has about 2,000TL left in her Garanti account - personally, our exposure amounts to virtually zero. I made the call to get our assets out of Turkey about four years ago, and fortunately a few on here believed me when I said get out of lira at that time (beer still on account
). I'm no expert, but if I has substantial funds on deposit in Turkey I'd be having a serious financial review right now.
JF
(your regular forum doom-sayer)
EDIT: changed the bit about TMSF resources as it was speculation, not fact.