Economy
Erdoğan lists 3 priorities as authorities handle fund turmoil
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that Türkiye is addressing the fund turmoil in line with its priorities, warning that those who multiplied small sums through market tricks would be made to pay.
Erdoğan said Türkiye was confronting a problem that had resurfaced in a certain part of the fund market, and that the government had brought it under control through decisive steps taken since Sept. 17.
The crisis erupted after several funds last month said they could not meet investors’ redemption requests during a market sell-off, prompting a wide investigation into suspected price manipulation in a number of thinly traded stocks.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK) suspended trading in 131 funds run by seven asset management companies and placed them into liquidation, affecting nearly half a million investors. The government said it aimed to complete the liquidation of half of the funds by the end of this week.
Prosecutors have issued asset freezes and travel bans and have arrested more than 80 people, including the top executives of the asset management companies.
Erdoğan said the government had quickly set up a Fund Coordination Board to oversee the liquidation.
“We are carrying out the operation with the care of a surgeon,” he told an event in Istanbul.
Repaying investors
Erdoğan said the authorities were handling the issue according to three priorities.
The first priority, he said, is for the savings in the funds being liquidated to be paid to their owners as quickly as possible. He said payments under ordinary liquidation began last week and have continued without problems.
For extraordinary liquidations, interim payments will begin once the bill submitted to Parliament becomes law, he said.
Manipulators to be held to account
The second priority, Erdoğan said, is to deal in court with those who made unjust gains through manipulation. He said this is being carried out with the judicial process in mind, and that investigations are deepening in light of new information and confessions.
He contrasted those people with ordinary workers and business owners. “My exporter brother travels country to country to sell one more container, my industrialist brother works with great devotion despite the ring of fire around us, my merchant and tradesman brothers go to extraordinary lengths to earn honestly,” he said.
Against that background, he said, he would show no tolerance for people who multiplied TL 3 into TL 10, TL 20 or TL 30 in just three to five months through market trickery, and that they would be made to pay for their excessive gains.
Protect markets
The third priority is to manage the process without damaging the capital markets, Erdoğan said. He said the government had been careful from the first day, drawing a clear line between opportunists and investors.
He said the opposition and what he called “hired-gun” press outlets had not shown the same care.
Warning against ‘criminalizing’ markets
Erdoğan said ignoring the problem in part of the fund market would be wrong, but so would using it as cover to attack Turkish capital markets and scare investors away. “We cannot welcome the criminalization of our entire capital markets over the fund issue,” he said.
He said such an approach would hurt not only the capital markets but also the real sector, because capital markets act as a financial bridge between savers and businesses.
Erdoğan said the problem had arisen in only 4.6% of the total number of funds. Turning that into an attack on all capital market instruments, he said, “would amount to undermining the Turkish economy and sabotaging our country’s path to development.”
“No one – whether a politician or a journalist – has the right to do this. And we will not tolerate such opportunism.”
Türkiye plans to complete new legislation by the beginning of 2027 to strengthen the fight against capital markets crimes, including coordinated trading by investment funds, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said Friday.
Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said separately that the government is preparing a broader bill with structural reforms for the markets. Both made the announcements in social media posts as the government works to restore investor confidence after last month’s fund turmoil.
The crisis erupted after several funds said they could not meet investors’ redemption requests during a market sell-off, prompting a wide investigation into suspected price manipulation in a number of thinly traded stocks.
The Capital Markets Board (SPK) suspended trading in 131 funds run by seven asset management companies and placed them into liquidation, affecting nearly half a million investors. The government said it aimed to complete the liquidation of half of the funds by the end of this week.
Prosecutors have issued asset freezes and travel bans and have arrested more than 80 people, including the top executives of the asset management companies.
MSCI freezes index changes
Top officials’ statements came a day after MSCI froze certain changes to its Türkiye equity indexes, saying it needed more time to assess market reforms. The decision leaves Türkiye’s emerging-market status unchanged.
The freeze took effect immediately and will remain in place until further notice. MSCI will not increase foreign inclusion factors or the number of shares used in its indexes, add securities to the MSCI Turkey Investable Market Index, or make upward migrations across size-segment indexes.
MSCI said the decision followed concerns raised during its 2026 Market Classification Review over “possible coordinated trading through fund holdings closely affiliated with certain smaller listed companies.” If sufficient progress is not evident by June 2027, it said, it could take further steps, including consulting on a potential downgrade from emerging-market to frontier- or standalone-market status.
Türkiye’s benchmark BIST 100 is on track for a fifth straight weekly decline and is down more than 20% from its record closing high in May.
New rules, government priorities
Şimşek said the SPK has taken steps to improve transparency and investor confidence, partly in light of assessments by international index providers.
He said these measures have improved the flow of information and made ultimate share ownership more transparent.
Şimşek pointed to the Fund Guide, announced by the SPK at the end of August. Under its rules, hedge funds must disclose their portfolios weekly, and funds traded on the TEFAS electronic platform must announce when their ownership of a company crosses certain thresholds, whether rising above or falling below them. The guide also introduced concentration limits and requires that fund borrowing be collateralized and carried out on organized markets.
The government will closely monitor the results and take additional steps without delay, in consultation with stakeholders, Şimşek said.
Main priorities are completing the liquidation of the problem funds and protecting investors’ rights, according to the minister.
Şimşek said sanctions would be applied firmly against anyone who disrupts the fair and competitive functioning of the markets. The goal, he said, is a transparent, reliable and effective capital market.
Bill expected in Parliament next week
Yılmaz said the necessary steps have been taken regarding the troubled funds and that the process would speed up after a bill expected to be debated in Parliament next week.
Liquidating the funds through ordinary and extraordinary procedures would strengthen the structure of the capital markets, he said, adding that administrative measures had also been taken to prevent similar problems from recurring. Preparations are continuing for a new bill with structural improvements.
The government sees capital markets as an important part of its development policy and will continue to strengthen them in line with international standards, through both administrative decisions and legislation, Yılmaz said.
The risks of artificial intelligence may exceed its opportunities if no adequate safeguards and ethical framework are put in place, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday, backing a blend of industry self-regulation and input from key governments.
The nascent technology was a dominant topic at this week’s annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok, where the IMF on Tuesday flagged significant growth and financial stability risks from a potential end of the AI investment boom, high debt levels and a prolonged war in the Middle East.
During a panel discussion that included Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, Georgieva said AI was already strengthening the global economy, but could also deliver negative shocks if it failed to deliver major productivity gains as quickly as hoped.
“If there are no safeguards, then the risks may exceed the opportunities. And above all, we do need an ethical foundation, and I’m not sure we are there as a society,” she said.
Certain preconditions needed to be put in place for people everywhere to benefit from the new and rapidly evolving technology, including access to digital infrastructure, access to electricity and adequate regulation, Georgieva said.
The bigger question now was how to create guardrails for a technology that was evolving so rapidly, she said, likening AI developments to Formula One race cars careening around with no barriers to protect the audience.
Common sense standards
Industry self-regulation was appropriate, given that governments were not well-placed to regulate or oversee the constantly changing sector, but should include engagement with society. The countries with the biggest AI sectors, including the U.S., China and India, along with countries in the AI supply chain, should be involved, she told the panel.
Institutions like the IMF should also be involved in their areas of competence, such as productivity growth, labor markets and financial stability risks, Georgieva said.
“I think it’s Formula One at night, without maybe brakes in the cars,” quipped Anthropic’s Clark, picking up her analogy. He argued that setting standards was possible and was already starting through early policy frameworks in the European Union and voluntary commitments in the U.S.
Clark said his company regularly tested its systems, published details on the tests and shared the information, but he did not believe it should be completely voluntary.
Asked if he would favor regulation from the countries that produced AI, Clark said: “Yes. We need common sense standards, and that’s how you ultimately give confidence in the technology and build the economy.”
He added that Anthropic had brought third-party evaluators into its business and given them permission to review data.
“That’s ultimately what we think many others need to do,” he said, welcoming a statement from Elon Musk that his firm SpaceX might do the same.
Artificial or super?
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Erin Browne said during a separate news conference that the IMF was too fixated on risks facing the global economy and should give more weight to opportunities for positive economic shocks, such as AI, which the U.S. government is now calling “super intelligence.”
On Thursday, Browne told Reuters that Washington was in talks with other IMF shareholders about adopting the new moniker in a joint statement being drafted by the fund’s steering committee.
Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey told a meeting of the Institute of International Finance that he was more optimistic than a month ago that countries would reach alignment on testing standards for AI.
“I’m not sure whether we’re supposed to talk about AI now, are we? I did use the phrase the other day ‘the artist formerly known as AI,'” he said.
Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Kevin Warsh also weighed in, telling Georgieva during a separate panel: “Kristalina, you pronounce it AI. In the U.S. we now pronounce it SI.”
The supervisor of New York City’s pension funds, one of the largest in the United States, asked Anthropic to postpone its stock market debut until risks posed by its artificial intelligence technology are better controlled.
New York City Comptroller Mark Levine cited growing concerns about safety and security in a letter addressed to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has himself called for an industry-wide slowdown of developing advanced frontier models.
“Prudence should not only be shown with respect to the pace of the frontier, it should be also shown with respect to the timing of an IPO,” Levine wrote in the letter.
“I therefore urge Anthropic to pause the IPO process so that the company may fully address these key issues, ones which investors must also assess,” he continued.
Levine oversees the city’s financial entities, which include several pension funds for city workers, teachers, police and firefighters.
These funds provide retirement benefits to more than 750,000 people, and their assets under management totaled $330 billion at the end of August.
A small fraction of those assets, around $7 million, are currently exposed to Anthropic, the Comptroller’s office told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
However, that exposure will grow if Anthropic goes public because its shares would become included in several stock indices, including the Russell 3000, which New York City tracks for its own investments.
So the city’s funds would “automatically become long-term investors when the company is integrated into the index fund,” a spokesperson for the Comptroller’s office said.
On Wednesday, prosecutors from eight U.S. states also sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, a rival AI lab that could go public next year, for allegedly concealing certain risks and implementing inadequate safeguards.
A gas pipeline in Syria’s northeast was damaged in a “sabotage attack, ” the state-owned petroleum company said Thursday, the latest such incident against an energy conduit in recent weeks.
The explosion followed a separate incident on Thursday morning in which a pipeline transporting oil products from the coastal city of Baniyas to the central province of Homs was damaged in what the Syrian Petroleum Company described as sabotage aimed at stealing fuel.
Years of civil war before the fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024 devastated Syria’s oil, gas and electricity sectors, with the country becoming heavily reliant on imports to meet its needs.
“The Al-Jabsa production gas pipeline was targeted” in Hasakah province, causing a fire, the Syrian Petroleum Company said, according to official news agency SANA.
The company said that the 16-inch pipeline exploded at 5:15 p.m. in an area about 60 km from the city of Al-Shaddadi.
Technical teams isolated the damaged section by closing valves at the plant and the Deir ez-Zor gas station in the al-Bughailiya area, while firefighting and safety crews headed to the site to secure the area, the statement said.
“Relevant authorities are monitoring the situation. The area has been cordoned off, the isolation valves on either side of the targeted section have been closed, and the surrounding area has been secured,” the company said.
That incident at the Baniyas-Homs oil products pipeline caused a gasoline leak, the company said, adding that work was continuing to repair the damage and restore the line to service.
The state petroleum company said last week that an oil pipeline in the country’s northeast was also damaged in a sabotage attack.
On Sept. 29, sabotage targeting a gas pipeline in eastern Syria caused an explosion, according to SANA.
And in early October, an explosion at a gas pipeline near the capital Damascus took three power stations offline.
The incidents come after demonstrations last month over rising fuel prices, which authorities linked to price hikes caused by the Middle East war.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has authorized the takeover of Germany’s Commerzbank AG by UniCredit, the Italian lender said Thursday, calling it an “important milestone” that underscored confidence in its bid.
By acquiring Commerzbank, valued at 35 billion euros ($39 billion), UniCredit plans to cement its status as a European heavyweight.
The deal – long contested by Commerzbank – should enable UniCredit to merge Commerzbank with its German subsidiary HypoVereinsbank, acquired in 2005.
UniCredit said it had received the authorization from the ECB to “cross the 30% equity participation threshold in Commerzbank AG… and to increase its stake further without upper limits.”
“The decision represents an important milestone in UniCredit’s acquisition of Commerzbank, underscoring the ECB’s positive assessment of the transaction and the confidence in UniCredit’s solid fundamentals and strong standing within the European banking sector,” it said.
The final regulatory steps are expected around year-end, by when “UniCredit will have approximately 50% of Commerzbank’s voting rights and be able to take control of the bank,” it said.
UniCredit is notably proposing to make cuts in Commerzbank’s international network, deemed too complex and inefficient, and to refocus the bank on its activities in Germany.
European officials have been multiplying calls for greater integration in the banking sector, arguing that the persistent fragmentation of the European Union is hampering the continent’s competitiveness.
Vital role
In a surprise move in September 2024, UniCredit took a stake in Commerzbank and thereafter built up a stake of nearly 50%, despite fierce resistance from the German lender and Berlin, with the German state still owning 12% of the capital.
Commerzbank slashed thousands of jobs and hiked its financial targets in an effort to convince shareholders to back its campaign to remain independent.
But these efforts failed and, with UniCredit closing in on a controlling stake, Commerzbank’s CEO Bettina Orlopp called in late July for “constructive” talks with the Italian lender.
Berlin has, for its part, asked the head of the Italian bank, Andrea Orcel, to preserve the role of Germany’s second-largest private bank in the country’s economy.
Last month, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil met with Orcel seeking guarantees over the bank’s future. He said it was of “paramount importance” that Commerzbank “continue to fulfill its vital role in financing the German economy.”
UniCredit wants to create a European banking behemoth better able to take on bigger U.S. rivals, arguing that a merger would strengthen the region’s fragmented banking sector.
That is why, despite resistance in Germany, some policymakers in Brussels and at the European Central Bank have been more supportive of the possible takeover.
Nvidia and Apple each committed $25 million for U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, according to a report on Thursday that showed $333 million in private donations for the project.
The Adelson family, longtime financial supporters of Trump and his Republican Party, committed $25 million as well, as did billionaire Charles Ergen, co-founder and chair of telecommunications company Dish Network, the Washington Post reported.
The president himself is not on the list, according to the Post.
The White House said it would not release information about the donors, which spokesperson Davis Ingle said “represent a wide array of great American companies.”
“The same critics who are alleging fake conflicts of interests, would also complain if American taxpayers were footing the bill for these long-overdue renovations,” Ingle told Reuters.
Nvidia said it was proud to make a donation to a nonpartisan trust that serves Americans. “As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests,” a spokesperson said.
Apple declined to comment.
The scale of the ballroom project and the administration’s handling of fundraising and disclosures have drawn criticism from watchdog groups and legal experts, who say it raises questions about transparency, donor influence and adherence to longstanding ethics and oversight norms.
Trump initially said he and wealthy donors would pay for the estimated $400 million project, but he later unsuccessfully sought $1 billion from Congress for an underground bunker and security features to harden the facility.
The Post reported that the “vast majority of the funds raised came from companies and wealthy individuals with interests before the federal government” and that half the total came from companies or executives of firms that have had federal government contracts in Trump’s second White House term.
The planned ballroom is among several projects Trump is pursuing in his efforts to remake Washington with sweeping, unilateral changes that his opponents have challenged in court and called a power grab.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling in August, allowed Trump to continue construction of the ballroom while he challenges a judicial order that would halt much of the development. In a dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said the project was “likely unlawful.”
The ballroom, which Trump has said will seat 1,000 guests, has faced public backlash. Preservationists and opponents say Trump exceeded his authority by demolishing the historic East Wing, which housed the first lady’s offices and the White House movie theater, to make room for the structure.
Trump says a planned 8,360-square-meter (90,000-square-foot) ballroom will include bomb shelters, medical facilities, defenses against drones and missiles and other security features. Confronted with criticism of the project, his administration now says the facility is needed for national security, an argument the president has also made about a proposed triumphal arch.
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