Topic > The Development of Islamic Finance in Turkey

Starr, M., & Yilmaz, R. (2007) notified that there are 3 foreign-owned financial companies that started their business in 1980 while 3 more companies entered national market and their main source of funding are profit and loss sharing accounts. There are different types of products that Islamic bank has offered to the company, for example, mudarabah (capital-labor partnership), murabahah (cost-plus selling), musharakah (capital-capital partnership) and ijarah (leasing). Among these asset-side products, mudarabah and musharakah are classified as equity-based, while murabahah are classified as debt-based (interest-free). Revenue streams and value proposition are the main differences between Islamic banks and conventional business models. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe development of Islamic finance in Turkey can be highlighted in 1985, when in that particular year Prime Minister Turgut Ozal pursued the first interest-free program institutionalized or known as Islamic banking. The term "bank" was not used to distinguish these financial institutions from conventional banks. The Special Finance House was not bound to the banking legal framework and was managed according to the directives of the government resolution. Subsequently, in 1991, with the growth of institutionalized interest-free institutions, Anadolu Finans was founded, followed by Ihlas Finans, founded in 1995. After a year, Asya Finans was founded. The epic moment in the development of these interest-free institutions was from 1999 to 2001. In this timeline, financial crises occurred which affected the functioning of more than 20 banks. According to Alpay (2007) stated that 20 banks affected by the financial crisis were transferred to the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund due to the state guarantee on deposits at conventional banks. Furthermore, Ihlas Finans went bankrupt, leaving a huge void in the Islamic banking sector in Türkiye. While in 2001, the Turkish company was acquired by Faisal Finans and changed its name to Family Finans. Orhan (2018) noted that for now there are 5 Islamic banks and 47 conventional banks have been placed in Türkiye. El-Gamad, Inanoglu (as cited in Orhan, 2018) argued that there are two reasons for allowing the operations of special financial companies in Turkey, firstly, the reason is to encourage people to save, especially Muslims who they do not want to deal with interests and conventional banking activities while the second reason is to attract the inflow of funds from Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The operation of the Special Finance House can be classified into two categories: corporate services and retail services (Alpay, 2007). Under business service, there are 3 types of services: leasing, production financial support and profit and loss sharing funds. Additionally, retail servicing is a service that offers individual customers different types of consumer financing. Through the retail service, Special Finance House will purchase goods and add a certain profit margin, after which it will sell them to its customers for payment in installments, such as real estate, cars, computers, home equipment and office equipment. The retail service was carried out on the basis of interest-free banking principles and no cash credit was given.