Turkey's Central Bank revises reserve requirement rule

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Central Bank on Monday revised the reserve requirement regulation that links the ratios and remuneration rates to loan growth rates.

Previously on Aug. 19, the bank set new loan growth rate criteria for deciding reserve requirement ratios and remuneration rates.

Based on the new move, the real change in Turkish lira cash loans will be taken into account in the calculation of loan growth, the bank said in a statement.

Excluding the loans extended to financial institutions, the real annual growth rate of loans will be calculated based on the last three-month average of the real cash loan stock values, it noted.

The real cash loan value will be calculated via dividing the nominal loan amount by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) in the relevant period.

Banks whose CPI-adjusted real loan growth rate is between 5% and 15% will be able to benefit from reserve requirement incentives.

"Thus, long-term commercial loans that have a strong relation with production and investment, and long-term housing loans that have a weak relation with imports will be encouraged," the statement read.