Turkey: Banks' Reserve Ratio Requirements Revised

Turkey's Central Bank on Monday set new loan growth rate criteria for deciding reserve requirement ratios and remuneration rates.

Under the move, the ratio of and remuneration applied to required reserves has also been changed, the bank said in a statement.

"Accordingly, the reserve requirement ratios for Turkish lira liabilities and the remuneration rates for Turkish lira-denominated required reserves are linked to the annual growth rates of the total of banks' Turkish lira-denominated standardized cash loans and cash loans under close monitoring, excluding foreign currency-indexed loans and loans extended to banks," it said.

The move aims to use reserve requirements more flexibly and effectively as a macroprudential tool to support financial stability, the bank added.

"For banks whose loan growth is between 10% and 20% (reference values), the reserve requirement ratios for Turkish lira liabilities in all maturity brackets excluding deposits and participation funds with 1-year or longer maturity (excluding deposits/participation funds obtained from banks abroad) and other liabilities with longer than 3-year maturity (including deposits/participation funds obtained from banks abroad), will be set at 2%," it explained.

The current remuneration rate of 13% applied to Turkish lira-denominated required reserves is now set at 15% for banks with loan growth between the reference values, and at 5% for others.

Under the new arrangement, "loan growth rates will be calculated in each reserve requirement period and the banks whose loan growth is between the reference values will be subject to the related reserve requirement ratios and remuneration rates in the next three months (six reserve requirement periods)," it said. -