Participation banking (Interest Free Banking) system, the products it brought to the Turkish banking sector, its place and development in the Turkish banking sector

Participation banking is a banking model functioning according to interest free principles, carrying out all kinds of banking activities in conformity with these principles, and functioning according to the principle of participation to profit and loss in deposit collection and fund usage allowance activities. With its name used in Turkey, the word "participation" in the names of the participation banks expresses the participation of depositors providing funds to these banks to profit and loss, and is a term used to emphasize the presence of a banking system or model based on the principle of participation to profit or loss in the relevant model's commercial activity. In practice, participation banking have become a complementary banking model in Turkey to the Turkish Banking System, instead of being a model alternative of the same. These banks represent a third style banking model, in addition to 'Deposit Bank' and 'Development and Investment Banks', in the banking system. While participation banks are rather similar to deposit banks functionally, these are distinguished with the differences in the functioning of their fund collection and fund usage allowance methods. While there are various reasons in their establishments in Turkey, one of those reasons is the preference interest and interest income avoidance of a section of the people, and therefore the idle status of funds, which do not flow to classic banks, leading to these funds not being brought to the economy. The recognition, prominence and development of the system, has gained acceleration during the recent years, with the individuals and firms sensitive to interest gaining strength economically, and starting to be more eager to play a more active part in economic activities. These institutions, which are active in more than 75 countries, and generally named as Islamic Bank in foreign countries, first started to display activity in Turkey in the year 1984. Keywords 1. Participation Banking 2. Banking System 3. Principle of Participation to Loss and Profit 4. Participation 5. Deposit Banking