Turkey’s Surging Bad Consumer Loans Are a Concern, Group Says

Turkey’s Federation of Consumer Organizations signaled concern about surging bad consumer loans and called on the country’s banking regulator to take measures.

The number of people defaulting on consumer loans rose to 990,552 in September from 766,813 a year earlier, the Istanbul- based non-profit organization said in an e-mailed statement today, citing central bank data. Bad consumer loans rose 28 percent in November from a year ago, while total consumer loans increased 17 percent to 188 billion liras ($104 billion).

“Lack of conflict resolution in the collection of bad loans may result in an increase in foreclosures and cause irreparable damages to the consumer very soon,” the federation said. “The banking regulator should act on this as soon as possible.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Sibel Akbay in Istanbul at sakbay@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at dcrofts@bloomberg.net