By Taylan Büyükşahin | Partner Contributor, Türkiye Economy and Markets
Türkiye's Capital Markets Board (CMB) halted trading on Sept. 17 in every fund listed on the Turkey Electronic Fund Trading Platform (TEFAS) and managed by seven portfolio management companies, while initially ordering 130 funds into liquidation. A follow-up CMB list expanded the total to 131.
The trading halt extended beyond the funds marked for liquidation. Calculations from Sept. 16 TEFAS data reported by Turkish media put 223 affected funds at about 1.1 trillion lira, with fund-level investor counts totaling roughly 932,000. The 130 funds on the initial liquidation list represented about 826 billion lira and a combined fund-level investor count of around 515,000.
Those figures do not represent the same number of individual investors. A saver holding several affected funds is counted in each one.
The CMB subsequently set out the liquidation procedure, with İş Bankası assigned to the Tera Portföy funds and Ziraat Bankası to funds managed by the other six companies. Assets can be sold according to market depth and liquidity conditions, with proceeds distributed according to investors' holdings. The process can run for up to three months and may be extended with regulatory approval.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek says the problem remains confined to a small part of the market. He described the turmoil as a credit and liquidity problem in a limited number of funds, rejected the existence of a broader systemic or structural risk and said roughly 90% of the fund market continued to operate normally.
Türkiye has 2,038 investment funds, according to Şimşek. The latest liquidation list covers 131 of them.
Most of the fund industry remains outside the intervention. Individual savers face a different problem.
A separate enforcement track is running alongside the fund intervention. The CMB filed criminal complaints over transactions in three listed companies and imposed two-year trading bans on a number of individuals, with additional restrictions involving Pusula Portföy.
The regulator has also said it detected price movements in some low-float shares from late 2025 that could not be explained by company fundamentals or wider economic conditions.
Investors will remember that record when they decide where to place their savings next.
Turkish households do not lack alternatives to capital markets. Gold, foreign currency, housing, land and, at different periods, automobiles have long competed for household money.
Investment habits changed considerably during and after the pandemic. Low interest rates, easier digital access to brokerage accounts, a long series of initial public offerings and the search for returns brought millions of new investors into equities and funds.
Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş. (MKK), Türkiye's central securities depository and trade repository, recorded about 6.8 million equity investors at the end of August.
Millions of households that once stayed outside equities and funds entered the market. Savings that might otherwise have remained in physical assets, foreign currency or traditional deposits moved into financial instruments.
Some of that money can move back into familiar assets. Higher household demand for gold can add to imports. A renewed move into foreign currency increases dollarization pressure and weakens demand for lira assets. Housing and land remain powerful competitors for household savings.
The regulatory response may contain the immediate liquidity problem. Investors will judge the episode by how long they wait for their money, how much value is recovered and whether supervision prevents a repeat.
Savers who lose confidence in funds already know where else to put their money: gold, foreign currency and property.
Türkiye spent years drawing household savings further into its capital markets. The liquidation process will now show investors how that market behaves when funds are wound down and redemptions are halted.
Sources: Capital Markets Board of Türkiye, Ministry of Treasury and Finance, Financial Stability Committee, Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu A.Ş., TEFAS data reported by Turkish media, Reuters, Bosphorus News review and reporting.
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Taylan Büyükşahin is an economy journalist, founder and editor-in-chief of TC Lira, where he writes the Makro Bakış column. His journalism background includes work at Cumhuriyet, Referans, Dünya, Yeni Yüzyıl and Sözcü, with coverage across the Turkish economy, trade, energy, agriculture, business and the real sector.