Türkiye's fund investigation rests on a specific article for each step

Turkish authorities have, since 17 September, closed and begun liquidating the funds of seven portfolio managers, suspended a listed brokerage, barred dozens of people from trading, filed criminal complaints and handed the votes in three banks and two factoring companies to the deposit insurer.

Each step rests on a specific article of law. This explainer sets out the powers used, quoting the Turkish texts with translations, and the deadlines they create.

Closing and winding up the funds

Article 96(1) of the Capital Markets Law lets the Capital Markets Board (SPK), when it finds that a capital market institution has acted against the rules, "faaliyetlerinin kapsamını sınırlandırmaya veya geçici olarak durdurmaya" ("limit the scope of its activities or temporarily suspend them") or take "öngöreceği diğer her türlü tedbiri" ("any other measure it deems fit"). Citing that provision, the board on 17 September closed to trading on the TEFAS fund platform all funds founded by Tera, Pusula, Hedef, Atlas, A1, Pardus and Bulls, and ordered named funds wound up by a method it would set, bulletin 2026/60 shows.

The method came the same day in bulletin 2026/61. The custodian banks run the liquidations, İş Bankası for the Tera funds and Ziraat Bankası for the other six managers. They sell assets "yatırımcı menfaati, piyasa derinliği, likidite koşulları gözetilerek" ("having regard to investors' interests, market depth and liquidity conditions") and pass the cash to investors in proportion to their units. The three-month limit was extended to six months on 20 September (bulletin 2026/62). On 30 September the board added interim payments of up to TRY 1 million per investor, based on net investment as calculated by the central registry, starting with money market funds and with no units redeemed in return, for the Tera, Pusula, Atlas and Hedef funds. For the A1, Bulls and Pardus funds it ordered money market funds liquidated first, in descending order of investor numbers (bulletin 2026/67). On 15 October it moved the Hedef funds to the second basis (bulletin 2026/70). A bill that would put interim payments into law cleared a parliamentary committee on 14 October, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Measures against firms and people

The same Article 96(1) allowed the board to suspend Tera Yatırım Menkul Değerler's activities on 30 September. Article 96(2) lets it cancel the licences of managers and employees responsible for unlawful acts "geçici veya sürekli olarak" ("temporarily or permanently"); it cancelled three people's licences permanently that day (bulletin 2026/67). Borsa Istanbul then moved the brokerage's shares to its Watchlist Market under Article 35 of its listing directive, an exchange notice says.

Article 101(1) is the investigative tool. Where there is reasonable suspicion of market abuse, it allows measures including "Borsalarda geçici veya sürekli olarak işlem yapılmasının yasaklanması" ("a temporary or permanent ban on trading on exchanges"). The Tera bans run two years under the board's communiqué V-101.1. Article 107(1) makes trading to create a false or misleading impression of prices or supply and demand a crime punishable by three to five years in prison and a judicial fine no smaller than the gain. Under Article 107(3), a person who pays the Treasury twice the gain, and at least TRY 500,000, escapes punishment if payment comes before an investigation opens, and has the sentence halved during the investigation or cut by a third at trial. The board's complaint against 37 people over Tera Finansal Yatırımlar Holding shares sets 15 days from its decision for such payments, bulletin 2026/66 notes.

When the banking regulator steps in

Banks and factoring companies follow separate statutes. Article 18 of the Banking Law requires qualifying shareholders to keep meeting the conditions set for founders; those who lose them "temettü dışındaki ortaklık haklarından yararlanamaz" ("may not exercise shareholder rights other than dividends"), and the deposit insurer, the TMSF, exercises those rights on the regulator's notice. Article 6(3) of the factoring law obliges holders of 10 per cent or more who lose the required qualities to sell within six months, with the regulator deciding who votes in the meantime. The banking regulator used both on 30 September for the Destek, Hedef and Tera banks and the Destek and Tera factoring companies, according to its statement as reproduced by Alomaliye and a Destek filing that quotes the decision numbers.

A third route runs through the criminal courts. Article 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lets a judge appoint a trustee to run a company during an investigation where there is strong suspicion that an offence is being committed through its business. An Istanbul judgeship of peace used it on 7 October to name the TMSF trustee of Destek Finans Faktoring, the company disclosed.

The texts fix the dates that follow: an outer limit of six months from the 17 September liquidation notices for the funds, six months from 30 September for the forced sales of the factoring stakes, and two years for each trading ban.