Bank Asya headquarters is pictured in Istanbul on Wednesday. The February 3 takeover of management at Islamic lender Bank Asya by Turkey’s banking regulator’s is “completely legal,” state-run Anadolu Agency cited Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying, according to a Bloomberg report. Davutoglu denied any political motives in the seizure, which capped a year of attacks against the lender led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accuses Bank Asya of financing operations of an Islamic movement that he labels a national security threat to Turkey. Shares at the bank rose 3.3% on Wednesday after regulators took control. “This was a completely legal decision, it has no political
dimension whatsoever,” Davutoglu said. “It wasn’t a decision made on any kind of order, its legal dimension can be tested with
objective criteria.”
