Ethical issues and attitude in the Turkish banking sector

This study concentrates on the ethical issues and conditions prevailing in the Turkish banking environment. A selfadministered mail survey was conducted with 554 top bank managers in Turkey. Scenarios that were developed after a pilot study were factor analyzed. The objective of the study was to identify ethics related organizational, cognitive and affective dimensions that are likely to affect perceptions of bank managers in interpreting the eight factors and the remaining four scenarios. The findings indicate a consensus on ethical sensitivity among the Turkish bank managers. The Banks Association of Turkey has a code of ethics that favorably influences the banks, and the regulatory agency (BRSA) is perceived to enhance the ethical values in the sector. An optimistic view maybe to interpret the ethical banking climate as a desirable after effect of the banking crisis and the regulatory intervention. This development may indicate a deterrence-based shift to a more virtuous Turkish banking sector

Ethical issues and attitude in the Turkish banking sector

This study concentrates on the ethical issues and conditions prevailing in the Turkish banking environment. A selfadministered mail survey was conducted with 554 top bank managers in Turkey. Scenarios that were developed after a pilot study were factor analyzed. The objective of the study was to identify ethics related organizational, cognitive and affective dimensions that are likely to affect perceptions of bank managers in interpreting the eight factors and the remaining four scenarios. The findings indicate a consensus on ethical sensitivity among the Turkish bank managers. The Banks Association of Turkey has a code of ethics that favorably influences the banks, and the regulatory agency (BRSA) is perceived to enhance the ethical values in the sector. An optimistic view maybe to interpret the ethical banking climate as a desirable after effect of the banking crisis and the regulatory intervention. This development may indicate a deterrence-based shift to a more virtuous Turkish banking sector

Production of porous ceramics from sepiolite based minerals

Two sepiolite based clay minerals from Eskisehir region of Turkiye were studied to investigate their sintering behaviour and to evaluate the resultant ceramics as a potential porous ceramic material. Dry pressing and sintering were applied to produce porous ceramics and the effects of sintering temperatures on porosity, pore size, pore size distribution-and mechanical behaviours were studied. Microstructural evaluation was carried out using SEM and optical microscopy techniques. Sepiolite based minerals show differences in sepiolite content and also in carbonates counts. The effects of these differences on sintering behaviour, microstructural features, physical and mechanical properties were investigated. Higher sepiolite content in the samples promoted faster sintering at lower temperatures and sintered materials with lower porosity and higher strength. At 1200degreesC, the porosity of the sample with higher sepiolite content was 10% and that of lower sepiolite content sample was 40%. Low shrinkages and high porosity of the sepiolite based samples even at 1100degreesC indicate potential applications of these samples as porous ceramics in filtering and adsorption at high temperatures

The rheological behaviour of Turkish sepiolite

The effects of shear rate and time on the seperation of fibres from the bundles of sepiolite from Eskisehir-Turkiye were studied. These sepiolite minerals are composed of large bundles of needle like fibres and this anisometry with the surface characteristics are responsible for their rheological behaviours. Rheological behaviour of sepiolite was studied using a suspension in water with a sepiolite:water weight ratio of 1:3. Shear to was varied between 300-2000 rpm and shear time up to 90 minutes. Viscosity values were taken after every 10 minutes for each shear rate. Transmission electron microscope was used for microstructural analysis. When sepiolite powders were mechanically dispersed in water, many of the single fibres were seperated from the bundles to form an entangled and randomly intermeshed network causing an increase in viscosity by entrapping water. Viscosity values were changed from 50 Ps to 500 Ps with,increasing shear rate up to up to 2000 rpm. Also, it was observed that the particle size and viscosity values were changed by mechanical mixing but the total surface charge did not change

Prediction of bank failures in emerging financial markets: an ANN approach

Purpose – The recent financial crises in the world have brought attention to the need for a new international financial architecture which rests on crisis prevention, crisis prediction and crisis management. It is therefore both desirable and vital to explore new predictive techniques for providing early warnings to regulatory agencies. The purpose of this study is to propose a new technique to prevent future crises, with reference to the last banking crises in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach – ANN is utilized as an inductive algorithm in discovering predictive knowledge structures in financial data and used to explain previous bank failures in the Turkish banking sector as a special case of EFMs (emerging financial markets). Findings – The empirical results indicate that ANN is proved to differentiate patterns or trends in financial data. Most of the bank failures could be predicted long before, with the utilization of an ANN classification approach, but more importantly it could be proposed to detect early warning signals of potential failures, as in the case of the Turkish banking sector. Practical implications – The regulatory agencies could use ANN as an alternative method to predict and prevent future systemic banking crises in order to minimize the cost to the economy. Originality/value – This paper reveals that the ANN approach can be proposed as a promising method of evaluating financial conditions in terms of predictive accuracy, adaptability and robustness, and as an alternative early warning method that can be used along with the most common alternatives such as CAMEL, financial ratio and peer group analysis, comprehensive bank risk assessment, and econometric models.Banks, Economic stability, Financial control, Neural nets, Predictive process, Turkey

Asset and liability management in financial crisis

Purpose – An efficient asset-liability management requires maximizing banks' profit as well as controlling and lowering various risks. This multi-objective decision problem aims to reach goals such as maximization of liquidity, revenue, capital adequacy, and market share subject to financial, legal requirements and institutional policies. This paper models asset and liability management (ALM) in order to show how different managerial strategies affect the financial wellbeing of banks during crisis. Design/methodology/approach – A goal programming model is developed and applied to two medium-scale Turkish commercial banks with distinct risk-taking behavior. This article brings new evidence on the performance of emerging market banks with different managerial philosophies by comparing asset-liability management in crisis. Findings – The study has shown how shifts in market perceptions can create trouble during crisis, even if objective conditions have not changed. Originality/value – The proposed model can provide optimal forecasts of asset-liability components and banks' financial standing for different risk-taking strategies under various economic scenarios. This may facilitate the preparation of contingency plans and create a competitive advantage for bank decision makers.Assets management, Banking, Financial management, Liability, Turkey

Ethical issues and attitude in the Turkish banking sector

This study concentrates on the ethical issues and conditions prevailing in the Turkish banking environment. A selfadministered mail survey was conducted with 554 top bank managers in Turkey. Scenarios that were developed after a pilot study were factor analyzed. The objective of the study was to identify ethics related organizational, cognitive and affective dimensions that are likely to affect perceptions of bank managers in interpreting the eight factors and the remaining four scenarios. The findings indicate a consensus on ethical sensitivity among the Turkish bank managers. The Banks Association of Turkey has a code of ethics that favorably influences the banks, and the regulatory agency (BRSA) is perceived to enhance the ethical values in the sector. An optimistic view maybe to interpret the ethical banking climate as a desirable after effect of the banking crisis and the regulatory intervention. This development may indicate a deterrence-based shift to a more virtuous Turkish banking sector.business ethics; banking; Turkey