Türkiye's Fund Crisis Eases as 180,000 Investors Get Their Money Back

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek put fresh numbers on the payout effort, saying ₺130.2 billion ($2.6 billion) has landed in 614,874 accounts across 108 funds. Payments have now reached 420,031 individual investors, and 179,449 of them have recovered their entire net investment. Simsek was clear about where the cash comes from: the funds' own assets, recovery accounts and voluntary refund accounts — not the public budget.

The Capital Markets Board ordered 131 funds wound down, a group covering roughly 456,000 investors. Under standard liquidation, 93 funds have returned ₺68 billion to 71,899 accounts, while 15 funds in extraordinary liquidation made interim payments of ₺62.2 billion into 542,975 accounts as of Nov. 4.

The mess reached into boardrooms too. About 3,000 companies held ₺116 billion in the funds being liquidated, Simsek said, though they account for just 0.6% of employment and 0.9% of turnover. Firms with the heaviest exposure make up only 0.03% of employment and 0.02% of commercial loans. Simsek also flagged coming rules: harsher market-manipulation penalties, curbs on coordinated fund trades, independent checks on free-float ratios and sharper market surveillance.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said investigators found something bigger than stock manipulation — an entrenched criminal network. "The network that infiltrated our high-level oversight mechanisms has become quite evident as of today," he said. Former Borsa Istanbul CEO Korkmaz Enes Ergun was arrested on bribery charges earlier in the week, and former Family and Social Services Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya was arrested after Gurlek's remarks over alleged capital markets violations and membership in a criminal organization. Former SPK chairperson Ibrahim Omer Gonul was released under judicial control with a travel ban.

Markets exhaled. The BIST 100 climbed 6.72% last week to 11,482 points, breaking a seven-week slide, after liquidation-driven sales of BIST 30 holdings wrapped up and removed a key source of forced selling. A cheaper oil picture helped too: with Democrats taking a congressional majority in the U.S. midterms and hopes rising for an end to the U.S.-Iran war, Brent fell more than 15% last week to around $98 a barrel.

That drop matters for a country where energy imports drive a big chunk of the external financing bill. A lighter import tab would ease current account pressure and trim production, transport and operating costs — potentially giving the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye more room to keep cutting rates and drawing investors back to Turkish assets.