Erdogan Says Treasury to Take Over Turkey's Largest Listed Bank - Bloomberg

Erdogan Says Treasury to Take Over Turkey's Largest Listed Bank - Bloomberg:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan escalated his campaign to seize the nation’s largest listed lender, Turkiye Is Bankasi A.S., calling for a parliamentary vote on the takeover.

Shares of the lender, which is part owned by the main opposition party, tumbled after Erdogan told his ruling AK party’s lawmakers in Ankara on Tuesday that “Isbank will become the property of the Treasury, with the permission of God.”

The opposition CHP party doesn’t get any dividends from its 28 percent stake in Isbank, but Erdogan accuses it of “exploiting” the memory Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey. Ataturk bequeathed Isbank shares to the party he created in his will. The president contends that what once belonged to the nation’s founder shouldn’t be owned by a political faction.