| On November 7, after seven days out in the cold, three UK brokerage firms were told by the Capital Markets Board (CMB) in Ankara that they could resume dealing in Turkish securities. They had been suspended for refusing to sign a letter agreeing to divulge client names directly to the CMB. CMB chief Ali Ihsan Karacan ended up admitting that his behaviour may have been "unusually brusque". But he got his way. The firms have now signed a revised letter, but they don't regard the situation as satisfactory they feel they can now deal only for their own account or for clients who agree that their names may be given to the CMB. As reported in last month's Euromoney, on October 21 the CMB gathered all Turkish brokers dealing with foreign brokerage houses and issued them with an ultimatum: the CMB was conducting an investigation into transactions executed between May 1 and September 30 by non-resident banks and brokerage houses operating through Turkish intermediaries in shares of national carrier Turkish Airlines (THY). It said that non-resident banks and brokerage houses must give the CMB a list of their clients involved in these transactions. |