Turkey’s banking regulator chief, Sahap Kavcioglu, asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to accept his resignation, as a fund-scandal investigation increasingly targets top regulators and financial officials.
“In light of the recent allegations concerning the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency and myself, I asked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to relieve me of my duties in order to prevent any further damage to the institution,” Kavcioglu wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether his resignation was accepted.
Kavcioglu has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The regulator, known by its Turkish initials BDDK, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The probe into alleged market manipulation involving investment funds has expanded in recent weeks to politicians and senior financial officials. Those arrested include a deputy chairwoman of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, the chief executive officer of the stock exchange, the former CEO of the securities custodian Takasbank and the BDDK’s deputy chairman.
Also Read | Paraguay bank crisis: How much money is at stake?
The BDDK “has absolutely nothing to do with the fund issue,” Kavcioglu told local media in an interview published before his resignation request on Wednesday. He added that regulator “is one of Turkey’s most respected institutions.”
The fund scandal erupted in mid-September when several high-profile asset managers failed to meet redemption requests, in what the justice minister has termed a “Ponzi-like scheme.” Regulators then ordered the liquidation of 131 funds affecting about half a million investors, while authorities arrested dozens of finance executives.
Kavcioglu, a former central bank governor, has been at the helm of the banking watchdog since 2023.
