The presence of three cabinet ministers at a recent World Bank seminar on non-bank financial institutions was intended to underline the government's desire to develop Turkey's stunted financial services sector.
A World Bank report presented to the ministers noted that banks held 85 per cent of financial system assets. The rump was accounted for by other financial institutions, such as factoring, leasing and insurance companies, private pension and mutual funds, and venture capital firms.
It added that a corporate debt market simply "does not exist and organised derivative markets are still in their infancy".
The authors went on to blame this state of affairs for the country's two financial crises of November 2000 and February 2001. "Lack of depth and breadth has made the financial services industry vulnerable to shocks resulting in repeated crises," said the report.