The Esin Attorney Partnership has prepared an extensive report on what needs to be cured on the legal and tax angles and proposal for a financial restructuring and NPL reform and we will be publishing their report in a series of posts.

The concept of “financial restructuring” was introduced in Turkey following the country’s currency crisis in the summer of 2018. Financial restructuring, defined as revising a debtor’s financial structure and redetermining its financial strategy, became the major agenda item for Turkish financial institutions. Regulators intervened immediately and began working to create a legal framework for restructuring. The aptly named “Framework Agreement” that entered into force as a result of the joint efforts of the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Authority (the “BRSA”) and the Banks Association of Turkey (the “BAT”) was of particular importance. Nevertheless, we observe that restructurings commenced pursuant to the Framework Agreement have been progressing very slowly and in most cases have reached an impasse. While analysing the reasons behind that slow progress, we compared the concepts behind the Framework Agreement with those in some well-known international restructuring regimes such as Chapter 11 (US) and Administration and Scheme of Arrangement (UK), in order to identify the obstacles two effective financial restructuring in Turkey.