CAN THE TURKS REVIVE THEIR CAPITAL MARKETS?
In Istanbul, the commercial and financial hub of the Turkish Republic, the locals have a saying: while the capital, Ankara, proposes, Istanbul interprets -- in its own way. This year, if the bankers of Istanbul have their way, the Turkish capital market will get the missing ingredient that many believe has impeded a more active market -- the development of a large, liquid money market with the kind of instruments and innovations now much is vogue in the mainstream of financial development in other European centres.
"A capital market cannot work unless you have liquid money markets," said Vural Akisik, managing director of Interbank, Turkey's International Bank for industry and commerce. Akisik, together with bankers from Koc American Bank, Citibank, Chase Manhattan Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Bank, have held informal meetings about starting a Turkish lira commercial paper programme. They feel they have a good chance of persuading one of the 14 top-rated Turkish corporate groups to borrow in this manner within the next 16 months. "I would say we could have one commercial paper programme launched by June next year," predicted Piers Benwell, Citibank's keen new head of capital markets operations in Istanbul.