Turkey's banks agreed to help businesses that are struggling to pay off debt, a move that sent shares of lenders sharply higher on Wednesday as investors bet it could ease bad loans. Turkey's banks face a potential deluge of bad debt after the lira plunged 40 percent this year, driving up the cost for companies to service their foreign currency loans. J.P Morgan estimates that the private sector has around $146 billion in external debt maturing in the year to July 2019.
The agreement, which went into effect on Wednesday, regulates the framework for loan restructurings, taking into account recent market developments and their effects on the Turkish economy, the TBB banking association said in a statement, without elaborating. Banks and financial institutions that have signed the agreement account for 90 percent of outstanding loans, with the remainder expected to sign shortly, the TBB said. The Istanbul bourse's index of bank stocks surged 6.4 percent following the announcement, its biggest one-day advance in almost two months.