Are Turkish Banks Charging for Currency Withdrawals Now?

EDITOR NOTE: What’s happening in Turkey right now--banks charging you for withdrawals--can easily happen in America should all cash become digitized and fall under the control of the Fed and the banking system. The fiat system is a terminal game with an inherent endpoint; but total fiat digitization is a permanent extension of that game whose terminal end can be transferred over to your financial privacy, freedom, and control. Physical gold and silver are the only assets that can disrupt the draconian mechanisms underlying this system. Just ask any depositor in Turkey.

Some Turkish banks have begun charging a fee to withdraw foreign currencies in cash, bankers said on Thursday, after a slide in the lira to record lows last week.

The central bank this month classified such withdrawals as one of the transactions for which banks could charge.

Turks have been buying hard currencies since a currency crisis in 2018. As the lira has declined again in recent weeks, the amount held soared to $213 billion at the end of July, raising concerns that banks could find themselves short if there was a run on foreign banknotes.

Some banks have begun charging for withdrawals above a certain amount, and others are still working out their strategy, bankers said.

“It has gradually started across the sector,” said one banker, adding that all banks were likely to folow suit.

The BDDK banking watchdog last year set a one-day settlement delay for individual purchases of more than $100,000 in foreign currency.

Originally posted on Reuters