I can clearly make this observation based on my own experiences, those of my close circle, and what I’ve read.
Let me state right from the start who this article is about. I’m singling out state-owned banks and İş Bankası, founded by Atatürk, because these banks strive to provide genuine banking services across the board, regardless of the circumstances, and they strive to support their customers as best they can, even if they face financial difficulties.
Other banks in the sector, however, tend to pull the rug out from under you at the slightest problem (the vast majority of which may be beyond your control). Meanwhile, the target audience for this article are the senior executives at these private banks. This means the board of directors, the general manager, the deputy general managers, and the heads of the relevant departments reporting to the deputy general managers.
Muggers and opportunists
I have nothing against those who strive to continue their heroic duties in bank branches; on the contrary, I believe they deserve applause, just like healthcare workers. These banks’ senior executives act as if they were aliens, not us, confined to our homes, or as if over a million people worldwide weren’t currently infected. They don’t implement any government decisions, or pretend they are. They don’t meet restructuring demands. While the public is struggling to survive, they’re self-isolating at home, constantly taking the ball for granted. In fact, some of them are even opportunistic. It’s a shame, a sin.
Shall I give you an example? Here’s a news report published on a tourism website: https://www.turizmaktuel.com/haber/isler-den-bankalar-firsatcilik-yapiyor-cikisi
In this report, Mehmet İşler, Vice-President of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED), stated that the tourism sector, negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, is having difficulty accessing the financing it needs. He added that private banks, taking advantage of the situation, are opportunistically trying to provide loans with harsher terms. In his statement regarding the economic measures taken, President Erdoğan emphasized the importance of quickly meeting the liquidity and cash needs of companies with credit lines at financial institutions and organizations and of not restricting the use of these lines.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that steps are expected from financial institutions to relax credit conditions to protect employment and sustain economic growth in this environment.
Is this happening? No.
The rug is being pulled from under the real sector
Let me explain the current trend in private banks: They’re not getting involved in any of the problems. They tend to put viable loans into non-performing debt. They say they’ll see what happens later.
In other words, they’re pulling the rug from under the real sector, and with the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of companies they’ve pulled the plug on, some sectors will completely collapse, and the economy will essentially grind to a halt.
However, some sectors shouldn’t be stalled. Can we give up on education, food, beverages, manufacturing, and energy? Absolutely not. I don’t know how the banking sector, one of the pillars of the system, can be made to act in accordance with the spirit of the post-disaster situation created by the pandemic. Bank managers need to grasp the gravity of the situation and completely change their mindset.
Risk of a Social Explosion
Otherwise, this global pandemic will destroy every bastion of the inflexible capitalist system one by one. This includes banks. Because without the real sector and entrepreneurs who drive economic growth, the banking sector cannot exist. The worst-case scenario is a social explosion.
I would like to remind those who may find this exaggerated: Even those who would normally have no need in their lives are becoming needy. For example, many SMEs or employees in various sectors, such as barbers, hairdressers, waiters, kiosk operators, motorcycle couriers, cafes, restaurants, school buses, and lower- and mid-level professionals, are in dire straits, and this problem appears set to worsen.
In other words, the number of those in need is increasing exponentially. If this situation continues and banks fail to take their place in this fight against humanity for effective crisis management, they will be igniting a social explosion. In other words, they must set aside their status as practitioners of unbridled capitalism, indifferent to the people’s well-being and uncompromising adherence to the system they’ve created, and consider what they can do for humanity and our people, and how they can contribute to the fight against this virus. Otherwise, I don’t think the senior executives of the banks sitting atop those towering plazas will be able to maintain their indifferent attitude any longer.
On the other hand, well-functioning civil society organizations are trying to support the public as much as they can. Despite all the difficult circumstances, they are developing and implementing various projects to alleviate these hardships, even if only a little.
Time to examine one’s conscience
In such an environment, I believe I will demonstrate an innovative mindset in the fight against the coronavirus and bring forward different projects that will benefit people, and that everyone will get to know me better.
Furthermore, through TİDER, which I founded, we continue to help those in need. We are developing projects across Turkey to help alleviate the situation in our country. You will hear from me and my teammates on these matters soon. Despite all the challenges I have faced, my entrepreneurial spirit continues. Ultimately, my conscience is clear; I am doing my best for my people.
I call out to the bankers I mentioned in this article: Are you doing your best too? Is your conscience clear?
Three bonuses for this article:
Related to this blog post, I’d like to share three videos covering the current post-disaster coronavirus crisis, covering topics such as the economy, business, entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, civil society organizations, and science.
- Coronathon: As I mentioned in the article, the first of these videos is about entrepreneurs or those with an entrepreneurial spirit searching for solutions to the post-disaster situation we find ourselves in. Here’s the evaluation video of Coronathon, where entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs discussed all their ideas over a weekend, selected the best ones, and took steps towards implementation:
2.Adım Adım – TİDER Chat: Last week, we hosted a digital chat with Kıvanç, the president of Adım Adım. In this chat, we evaluated the current situation, introduced TİDER, and shared the solutions developed by TİDER. Here’s the video:
3. Daron Acemoğlu and Gökhan Hotamışlıgil Online Seminar: Daron Acemoğlu and Gökhan Hotamışlıgil participated as speakers in the online seminar organized on April 1st by the DTİK, a leading business organization. I would like to share the video of this seminar:
This seminar, which provides important information, firstly included the summary published on DEİK’s website, and then shared the summary I received from various sources below:
Seminar Summary:
TWO WORLD-RENOWNED TURKISH SCIENTISTS ASSESSED CORONAVIRUS AND ITS IMPACTS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Organized by the World Turkish Business Council (DTİK), DEİK/DTİK President Nail Olpak, Harvard University JS Simmons Professor of Genetics and Metabolism Prof. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor of Economics Prof. The online seminar titled “Coronavirus and Its Effects on the Global Economy,” attended by Daron Acemoğlu, attracted considerable attention. Attended by 500 people, Prof. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil discussed the impact of the Covid-19 virus on individual and public health, while Prof. Daron Acemoğlu thoroughly explored the impact of the coronavirus on the global economy and governments.
DEİK-DTİK President Nail Olpak, who hosted the program, emphasized in his opening remarks that many areas of daily life will change in the coming period, particularly consumer behavior and working habits. Olpak stated that these changes in behavior and habits will primarily affect investment areas. He stated that we have entered a new era where almost all pricing has become more complex, interest and exchange rates are unpredictable, and commodity prices, especially gold, have become uncertain, rather than a period where fixed returns were predictable. DEİK-DTİK President Nail Olpak emphasized that the importance of inflation should also be questioned during this period, and that e-commerce and logistics will also play a greater role in business life.
Gökhan Hotamışlıgil: “A virus can be far more effective than military warfare. Now, the world’s largest producer of medical devices, not military equipment, is the most effective.”
Prof. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil stated that because COVID-19 is a new, unprecedented virus, the entire world is inadequate and helpless in the face of this pandemic. He said, “The more a problem is global, the more its solution must be global. No state can afford to neglect public health anymore. There will be a boom in this area in the coming period. I believe that global military device production may yield leadership to medical device production. Because the whole world has now seen that a virus is far more effective than military warfare.”
Professor Hotamışlıgil also highlighted the incredible speed of information. He noted that the genetic map of the virus was being compiled at record speed, and while finding a vaccine is crucial, safety studies are taking a long time. He emphasized that efficacy and protective studies must be completed first, and that a vaccine cannot be released to the public for widespread distribution until these results are obtained.
Hotamışlıgil: “The virus will escape, we will chase it down.”
Hotamışlıgil stated that there are two fundamental scenarios, the first of which is to strongly suppress the first wave of the virus’s spread. Professor Gökhan Hotamışlıgil noted that heart attacks and cancers have not stopped during the pandemic, and that no country has the health capacity to withstand attempts at herd immunity. Hotamışlıgil, stating that he anticipates this process will take between one and one and a half years, said, “The discovery of a cure could change everything. The better we can control this process, the less drastic measures we may need to take in the future. We need to conduct as many tests as possible right now.”
Emphasizing the importance of serological testing, Hotamışlıgil emphasized the importance of widespread use of serological testing to enable those who have recovered from the disease but don’t know it to return to their normal lives. He stated that the more serological tests conducted, the more people can return to the workforce.
Prof. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil listed the urgent steps Turkey needs to take as follows:
- Strengthening the healthcare system,
- Controlling the death toll,
- Increasing healthcare capacity and protecting doctors,
- Shifting isolation from a social responsibility to a mandatory one, and increasing precautions,
- Increasing the number of tests,
- Maximizing Turkey’s investment in science and competence,
- Establishing centers to combat epidemics and training personnel.
Daron Acemoğlu: “If we utilize this period correctly, we can establish a much better healthcare system and a better welfare state.”
Prof. Daron Acemoğlu stated that the pandemic will have profound and long-lasting effects on the economy, noting that 50% of the US population is currently unable to contribute to the economy. Acemoğlu stated that this means economic activity has decreased by nearly 30%. He pointed out that even in a typical US recession, 3% of companies went bankrupt. He noted that the pandemic has spread globally, deepening its impact on the economy.
Acemoğlu noted that if social measures are increased by the state and civil society using new technologies, as in China, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, the pace of economic recovery can be accelerated. He added that while China has made many mistakes, it has done so in a top-down manner and achieved results.
Prof. Acemoğlu emphasized that although we are going through a difficult period, there is hope socially and politically. He stated that it is impossible for the world’s global social and political system to remain unchanged.
Citing the example of Sweden, Acemoğlu argued that economist Friedrich Hayek’s thesis that “if the state increases its economic power, democracy will weaken” is falsifiable. He stated that if this period is evaluated correctly, it will be possible to establish a much better welfare state and a much better healthcare system. While noting that this isn’t easy, he emphasized that hope remains high. He emphasized that, as in all periods, everything is in people’s hands.
Acemoğlu stated that supply chains must be strongly supported. He stated that social distancing policies and precautions must continue for at least another year or two, and that even if we return to work one day, we won’t be able to return to restaurants for a long time. He noted that the pandemic has only recently reached Africa and some other regions. He emphasized that even if it’s currently contained in the USA and Europe, it could return as a second wave in other regions, and caution is necessary.
Tag: health
