Impact of draft regulation related to fees, commissions and expenses other than interest charged from financial consumers on stock returns of banks traded on borsa İstanbul

The fee, commissions and expenses collected from financial consumers in return for products and services offered by banks in the Turkish banking industry have become a current issue in many platforms such as the public opinion, media as well as arbitration committess for consumer problems, and led to intensive discussions and customer complaints. Occupying the public agenda for a long time, this issue has take on another dimension with a draft regulation issued on August 21, 2014, by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. Examination of short-term effects announcement of above-mentioned draft regulation to the public on stock returns of banks that are traded at Borsa Istanbul and whether or not the semi-strong form market efficiency hypothesis applies to the Borsa Istanbul Equity Market constitute the subject-matter of this study. Accordingly, a sample group consisting of 11 banks was used in the study, where event study methodology is adopted. Findings of the study indicate that announcement of draft regulation did not make a statistically significant reaction in the stock returns on and after the date of announcement, statistically significant abnormal returns were acquired on certain days and periods before the event, such development was forecated and anticipated by the market palayers, and Borsa Istanbul Equity Market is semi-strong form efficient. Keywords: Abnormal Return, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, Efficient Markets Hypothesis, Event Study, Semi-Strong Form Market Efficiency.