Turkey Investigates Around 100 People for Illegal Derivatives Trading

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s Capital Markets Board has identified about 100 people who were illegally trading in derivatives markets abroad, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The regulator’s investigating those people and is now expected to notify the Treasury, which may fine the people for violating a 2017 law requiring resident investors to trade derivatives through authorized institutions, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing a probe that hasn’t been made public.

The regulator has conducted similar investigations in the past only for the Treasury not to impose fines. Capital Markets Board Chairman Ali Fuat Taskesenlioglu said such investigations were “routine,” but didn’t give any details.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry said it has yet to receive a notification from the markets regulator.

The Turkish government banned trading derivatives through unauthorized platforms two years ago at a time of market volatility.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ugur Yilmaz in Istanbul at uyilmaz@bloomberg.net;Cagan Koc in Istanbul at ckoc2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, ;Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, ;Riad Hamade at rhamade@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams

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