Ali Bahçuvan/ Economist Can financial literacy allow us to predict which shares the government may seize? Can I recommend an economy professor with weak financial literacy (!), a manager at an independent auditing firm, and a high-level tax expert “Improve your level of financial literacy” if they come to me to find a solution about their loss of money inÇukurova and Kepez shares after the state has seized these companies’ privileges.
Unanswered questions with an obvious answer…
Ali Bahçuvan/ Economist
Can financial literacy allow us to predict which shares the government may seize?
Can I recommend an economy professor with weak financial literacy (!), a manager at an independent auditing firm, and a high-level tax expert “Improve your level of financial literacy” if they come to me to find a solution about their loss of money inÇukurova and Kepez shares after the state has seized these companies’ privileges. Can I ask a retired bank examiner “Why have you bought Demirbank shares? Is your knowledge levelinsufficient?”If he replies “The Council of State has found the seizure of Demirbank unjust and rejected the decision, but in the meantime Demirbank was sold to HSBC. Neither HSBC nor the government has compensated me.”, what can I tell him? Or if he tells thatalthough the seized bank Yaşarbank was actually losing moneyits balance sheet had been changed within the state-appointed Treasury official’s knowledge to seem as if it was making profit, and adds “How could a financially literate person know about this?”, what answer can I give him?
Can I ask a high-level banker who is also a partner of the daily Sabah, “Why aren’t you financially literate?” If he tells me, “Sabah was not in a tight squeeze.It had a lot of assets but was made to stand suretyfor the non-public companyof the controlling shareholder of Etibank. And when the state seized Etibank, it also seized Sabah and sold it later, collected even more money than its debts. But no one paid me anything…” Can I comment on this as “You are financially illiterate?”
What can I tell a veteran stock broker who has bought Uzel Makine shares? What about “Let us educate you so that you will never buy a similar share once again”? Uzel Makine has lent much money to its controlling shareholder Uzel Holding,which stated later “We will pay this debt by selling the shares we hold.” However, it has not made any payment while news emerging later said “This company suspendedits activities.”What if it is announced that while the company’s competitors are breaking profit records, its facilitywhich has assets and every kind of potentials “has shut down”… Please tell me, how can I answer those asking “A call was decided regarding the sold shares of company, but the buyers did not issue a call. Where was the government back then and where is it now?”
“Let’s win back 400 thousand investors”
There are innumerable such examples! If the system unjustly allows the defrauding of investors while loopholes cannot be filled, financial literacy cannot solve anything. When intermediary firms and sector officials have labeled investors as ignorant for years, weren’t they aware that those professionals just beside them from whom they received consultancy services had also fallen victim to these loopholes?
Without loopholes being filled, how many investors can we draw to the stock exchange only by teaching the logic of classical portfolio management? What advertisement can draw investors to the stock exchange while lost assets speak for themselves? When stories like “The state did not support us at the stock exchange” circulate, and reports of defrauding cases get about can new investors be found?
Let’s stop this mistake before it is too late and include the aggrieved investors into this campaign so that this effort can succeed. Let’s win back the 400 thousand investors and make such arrangements that investors will not be aggrieved once again. Believe me, the rest of it will be much easier.