Fund Crisis Ends With a New Boss, Not New Rules

Muhsin Atcı got the job on a Sunday. The decision, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and published in the Official Gazette, names him the new chair of Türkiye's Capital Markets Board (SPK), with Ersin Başar Ekmekci as his deputy. Twelve days earlier, the man he replaces, Mahmut Sütçü, was dismissed on October 20 amid the turmoil in the country's stock exchange and the liquidation of a number of funds.

One signature fires the chair. One signature hires the next. That's the whole mechanism.

The Crisis, Briefly

The trouble began in the middle of September, about six weeks ago, when several funds said they couldn't meet investors' redemption requests during a market sell-off. A wide investigation followed into suspected price manipulation in a number of thinly traded stocks. SPK moved fast once the damage was done: it suspended trading in 131 funds run by seven asset management companies and put them into liquidation.

The article gives no account of what happened to the people holding those 131 funds. Their money is frozen inside a liquidation process run by the same regulatory body that is now getting fresh leadership. The people who couldn't redeem their savings in September haven't been named, quoted or counted anywhere in the official record.

The Apparatus Reshuffles Itself

Atcı comes from tax enforcement. He has spent 23 years in the field and took over the Tax Inspection Board (VDK) in October 2023, three years ago. He oversaw audits of some of the country's largest companies. Ekmekci arrives from MASAK, the financial intelligence unit, where he was deputy president. A third appointee, Yasemin Girici, joins the board after serving as an EBRD director representing Türkiye, Romania, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Algeria.

Look at the résumés. Tax inspector. Financial intelligence officer. Multilateral bank director. The state's answer to a market collapse is to move its own enforcers from one office to another. Nobody from outside the apparatus appears on the list. Nobody who lost money does either.

The pitch is deterrence. The new names, with years of professional experience including in auditing procedures, are "seen as helping restore confidence in the market, increasing deterrence in auditing and protecting investors." Seen by whom isn't specified. Ekmekci's background in tracking suspicious transactions "is expected to strengthen" the SPK's ability to detect market abuse. Expected by whom, also unspecified. The base reporting offers expectations and perceptions, no named critic and no named investor.

Who Gets Crushed, Who Gets Confidence

Confidence is the product being restored here. Not repayment, not accountability for the manipulation under investigation. Confidence. The word does the work that a verdict would do in a system where verdicts aren't promised. The investigation into suspected price manipulation is described as wide, yet the article reports no charges, no names and no outcome. The dismissal of one chair is the only consequence on the record.

A regulator that guards markets for the state, staffed by the state's own auditors, appointed by the head of state. When it fails, the remedy comes from the same chain of command that produced the failure. The investors who couldn't withdraw their money in September get a press-ready reassurance that the right people are now in charge.

On a Sunday, in the Official Gazette, the hierarchy repaired itself. The savers will find out later whether anyone repaired anything for them.