Lira rout sharpens Turkish bank risks

Banks and corporates have continued to ratchet up foreign-currency borrowing over the past two years. The big lira sell off this summer amid a local political crisis highlights how much higher funding costs could bring trouble for Turkish banks.

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Supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) light flares as they celebrate along a street after the parliamentary election in Diyarbakir, Turkey

With the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in turmoil, and a flare-up in violence in the Kurdish southeast, Turkey increasingly looks like a country in crisis. But another election, after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party fell short of a majority in elections this June, and the prospect of continued political instability, is just one of a confluence of difficulties for local banks and borrowers.

“It’s a very challenging environment,” says Serhat Gurleyen, research director at Is Yatirim, the investment arm of Turkey’s biggest private bank by assets, speaking in late August.

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