Turkey Banks Well Placed

Fitch Ratings Agency says the base case is that Turkish banks will continue to have good funding market access in 2018. “Our base case is that Turkish banks will continue to have good funding market access in 2018 and be able to largely roll over their foreign debt. Available foreign-currency liquidity should also mean they are well placed to cope with any potential short-lived market closure,” said Fitch Ratings Turkish Bank’s Outlook report for 2018, Anadolu Agency reported. The outlook for Turkish banks in 2018 is stable, reflecting Fitch Ratings’ view that the still supportive economic backdrop and banks’ significant capital buffers make them well placed to absorb further moderate shocks. However it has also been noted that risks pertaining to performance, capitalization and foreign-currency liquidity remain high given geopolitical tensions and macro volatility. Fitch also expects lending growth to slow moderately and profitability to weaken but still remain reasonable in 2018, in the absence of more stimuli.