Speaking at an Economic Journalists Association meeting yesterday, Akgiray noted that there are “well-known” manipulators in Turkey’s capital markets who are constantly in court over their actions. “There are well-known manipulators of Turkey’s capital markets. They go to court and are released soon after. … The thing they fear the most is losing money, so there is no other way [to curb this] than a pecuniary fine,” said Akgiray.
Explaining the measures being taken to punish speculators and manipulators in capital markets, Akgiray stated that “an economic crime will have an economic punishment,” while stressing that regardless of the status of an investor, no one is “untouchable” in Turkey’s capital markets.
“It’s important to catch a thief before he commits a crime,” stated Akgiray, reminding the audience of the supervisory power of the SPK. “With the new law and regulation that we are working with, it’s crucial that we spot manipulation and stop it in its tracks,” he said, adding that an “early warning” system would go into effect by the end of the year and that the SPK would begin surveying investors to “measure the pulse of capital markets.”
 Vedat Akgiray |
He added, however, that the word “manipulation” has often been thrown around by the press, but only 1 to 2 percent of all trade on the İstanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB) could be labeled manipulation. “We need to clean this up,” stated Akgiray.
Media’s role in manipulation
Akgiray also stressed the importance and the responsibility of the media with regard to capital markets. He emphasized that journalists looking to manipulate markets by writing articles with disinformation were committing the same crime as insider trading. He added that anonymous sources could not be used when writing finance pieces “especially if right before publishing this piece the journalist in question held shares in the relevant companies -- this is a crime.” He noted that if need be, the portfolios of journalists would be made public to ensure that they are held accountable for their finance stories.
According to Akgiray, Turkey needs to work to get a piece of the big cash pie that is Gulf capital. Stating that approximately $1.5 trillion of funds are ready to be invested, Akgiray noted that Gulf investors were reluctant to invest in the West given the financial crisis and were also indisposed to invest in China. “It’s just sitting there. The holders of the cash are looking around for investments that they can get into with a sukuk [Islamic bond] contract. This number isn’t something that we can just ignore. We need to take advantage of this.” When asked how much of this capital he foresees coming into Turkey, Akgiray said, “Many billions of dollars.”
