Turkey to ease establishment of investment banks

By Elif Ferhan Yesilyurt

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey will take steps to ease the establishment of investment banks in the country, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said late Thursday.

"Now, we will take a further step and make the establishment of investment banks in Turkey easier," Simsek said at an award ceremony in Istanbul.

Simsek added capital markets should be enhanced more.

"Development banks are an important instrument. There is also demand from outside. [...] We will take a number of steps to ease the entrance [of the development banks in Turkey]," Simsek said.

Simsek said the efforts of angel investors -- wealthy individuals putting up their own money to back start-up or scale-up companies -- had garnered results in Turkey.

"Maybe, we have not yet reached a significant size but numerically, we are now top five [in the number of angel investors] in Europe," Simsek added.

Concerning the Turkish economy’s banner annual growth of 7.4 percent in 2017, Simsek said: "The growth is yesterday's figures, we need to look to the future. We need to provide a perspective for the upcoming period."

Simsek added it was important to maintain Turkey's performance.