e-book2011

NEWSLETTER 2011

158

Heavy Fines for Banking Cartel!

Att. Zeynep Tuncer

The Competition Board (the “Board”), in its decision dated

07.03.2011 and numbered 11-13/243-78

, decided that Akbank T.A.S.

(“Akbank”), Denizbank A.S. (“Denizbank”), Finans Bank A.S. (“Finans

Bank”), Turkiye Garanti Bankasi A.S. (“Garanti Bankasi”), Turkiye Halk

Bankasi A.S. (“Halk Bank”), Turkiye Is Bankasi A.S. (“Is Bankasi”),

Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi T.A.O. (“Vakiflar Bankasi”) and Yapi ve Kredi

Bankasi A.S. (“Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi”) which are active in the banking

sector have respectively infringed Article 4 of the Act No. 4054 on the

Protection of the Competition (the “Competition Act”) by making an

agreement and thus, imposed heavy administrative fines on them.

Competition Infringement Allegations

Two allegations for competition infringements were made against the

banks, which initiated a comprehensive investigation. The first allegation

consists of the participation of banks to a “gentleman’s agreement”

implemented in their business operations since 2001 in regards to direct

deposit of salaries/wages to employees’ bank accounts and thereupon,

promotional offers by banks so as to trigger their consumer banking business.

Within this agreement, the participant banks decided that (1) promotions will

not be granted to private companies, (2) other banks will not make proposals

to institutions which protocols are still in force, (3) even if proposals have

already been made to those institutions, they will be withdrawn and (4) if a

promotion has already been granted to an institution which has a protocol

with another bank, the promotion will be registered as damage.

As per the second allegation, it consists of the determination and

fixation of the amount of promotional offer bid made by Akbank,

Denizbank, Finans Bank, Garanti Bankasi, Is Bankasi and Yapi ve Kredi

Article of October 2011

The investigation started on August 2009. The motivated decision was published in the

official website of the Competition Authority on September 5, 2011. To consult the decision,

see the following link: