The Draft Act on Bank Cards and Credit Cards has proposed in the interest of the credit card holders in Turkey that the customers should not be lured by a new credit card by the banks until all debts on the old credit card is cleared off. In response to this Federation of Consumer Associations (TUDEF) Chairman Turhan Çakar held a press conference at his group’s Ankara and raised concerns over the high rates of interest paid by the credit card holder even after a fall in the inflation below 8 percent. But Sertac Özinal, general manager of the Center for Bank Cards justifies this by putting across different cost structures and the risk attached to different products.
Cakar has not yet come up with a solution but the banks can look forward to co-operative banking in Turkey based on Islamic model of mudaraba and shirka or profit sharing. But the modernized banks are keeping this structure at bay by focusing on the fact that Turkey is the only nation with a 12 percent share on customer’s spending as compared to the 17 percent and 24 percent of EU and the US.
As far as the rate of interest is concerned a uniform tax rate structure might solve the problem, as United Brands Association (BMD) Chairman Saruhan Tan says that,
there being no article about interest rates in the draft, saying that banks reduced home mortgage rates and yet credit card rates can be five times as high.
