Leadership Profiles
ATTİLA KÖKSAL, CFA
Chairman, The Association of Capital Market Intermediary Institutions of Turkey
Partner and Deputy CEO, Standard Unlu Menkul Degerler A.Ş..
The Association of Capital Market Intermediary Institutions of Turkey (TSPAKB) is the self-regulatory organization in the Turkish capital markets. Mr. Attila Köksal, CFA, represents TSPAKB on the IFIE Advisory Board. Mr. Alparslan Budak, Assistant Secretary General for TSPAKB supports Mr. Köksal and TSPAKB's IFIE and investor education activities. TSPAKB also is on the Advisory Board of the Asian Forum for Investor Education (AFIE). Excerpts of a profile interview follow and continue on the IFIE website. Please visit TSPAKB's website at www.tspakb.org.tr.
Q: Can you describe the work of TSPAKB?
A: The Association of Capital Market Intermediary Institutions of Turkey was established as a self-regulatory organization in 2001. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year. Since membership is compulsory, we represent all banks and brokerage firms operating in the Turkish capital markets.
We regulate and oversee some activities of our members. In addition, we license market professionals and offer various training programs.
Q: What does TSPAKB do in the area of investor education or investor protection?
A: Our Association's ultimate aim is contributing to the development of the capital markets and the economy. It is well known that the financial system facilitates economic development, through its role in the efficient allocation of resources. In order to improve this efficiency, the financial industry must become broader and deeper. To achieve this goal, we need to expand the investor base by providing them the necessary tools to make better investment decisions.
At the Association, we started our work by conducting a survey in 2010 among the general public. We tried to understand their level of knowledge and perceptions about the capital market institutions and investment products.
Our findings were that the investors did not have sufficient knowledge about the investment instruments or the institutions in the market. More importantly, they weren't aware of the investor protection mechanisms, such as the Investor Protection Fund. Therefore, they do not feel confident in making securities investments.
In the next stage, we determined the target groups in the light of our survey, such as current investors, potential investors, university students, teachers, media, etc. We are now working to build a wide range of educational content for the diverse needs of these different target groups.
The investor education campaign in Turkey is jointly undertaken by the Capital Markets Board, Istanbul Stock Exchange and several other institutions. First of all, the Capital Markets Board launched a web site (www.yatirimyapiyorum.org.tr) for investors. This website includes fundamental information about the markets and investment instruments, as well as complaint procedures for investors. The website is only in Turkish at present.
Our Association published a book aiming to introduce the capital markets in very plain language to potential individual investors. This book introduces financial markets and investment instruments, tells investors how they can open an account in a brokerage firm, what is investment consultancy and asset management. More importantly, it outlines the investor protection mechanisms in our market. It is a very basic level guide for investors. The Capital Markets Board and the Istanbul Stock Exchange also published similar booklets.
In addition, we visited 31 universities all over Turkey in three months with the Capital Markets Board and the Istanbul Stock Exchange. It is really important to create awareness among the university students, since they will become future investors or work force of this market.
When we visited universities, we organised a "drawing" among the attendees of each of our seminars. This attracted more students to our meetings. The winners of the drawing were given a one-week educational training at our Association, the Istanbul Stock Exchange and other capital market institutions. We invited around 50 students to Istanbul and covered all their expenses during the training program.
In May, again with the Capital Markets Board and the Istanbul Stock Exchange, we introduced our markets to the Turkish immigrant community in Germany. The second meeting in Germany will be in November. Germany is important for us because currently there is a community of 4 million Turkish people living there.
As our economy and markets continue to attract institutional and individual investors from other parts of the globe, we have experienced that it is increasingly important to make sure such investors understand the basics of how our markets and economy work, details of our regulatory structure, protections, and other issues. For example, we realize that institutional investors will often explain investments made in Turkish markets to their individual investors. So we realize the need to educate investors who live beyond Turkish borders. Therefore, to reach out to foreign institutional investors, we held a Turkish Capital Markets Day event in Korea last year. In October, we will do a similar event in Taiwan and next year, we are planning to do it in Japan.
Q: How do you see TSPAKB's role in global investor education?
A: We are a member of IFIE, as well as AFIE. In both institutions, we are represented on the Advisory Committee. In these platforms, we are sharing our opinions and our recent efforts. We are thankful to our friends in these institutions for providing us this opportunity.
We are willing to be more active by contributing to global studies on investor education. Moreover, in different international platforms, we are stressing the importance of investor education and promoting IFIE's work during our discussions. We want to lead among our friends in IFIE member institutions wherever we can be useful or contribute from our own work, circumstances, commitment and experience.
Q: TSPAKB is a member of IFIE and of AFIE. You also have participated in meetings held by IFIE-MENA. Can you tell us why TSPAKB wanted to join IFIE?
A: The discussions about an investor education campaign started long ago within our Association. First, we decided to study international best practices and other countries' experiences. Second, as you all know, each country is at a different stage of development of its investor education campaign. We wanted to see through which stages other countries have gone through. Combining these would have been helpful for us while planning and designing our own program. Therefore, we joined IFIE in 2009 and became a founding member of AFIE in 2010.
I must say that we learned a lot about other countries through the IFIE website and programmes, in addition to our bilateral contacts. We examined the international principles and best practices. The wealth of information we reached through IFIE, helped us to design a better programme.
On the other hand, we believe that certain issues can be best addressed in the global context, while others may need regional modifications. Countries within the same region may be facing similar challenges while delivering services and programmes. Therefore, we are involved in AFIE's work as well.
We also benefit from the annual conferences held by IFIE and AFIE. It is always wonderful to meet with colleagues at global conferences, although I did not have the opportunity to participate the IFIE Conference yet. I look forward to attending the next year's meeting.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for IFIE members?
A: One of our observations is that as IFIE continues to grow and develop, IFIE's leadership realizes that to be effective in a global context, we need to support and encourage investor education at different levels. Colleagues in my position should try to recognize, promote and introduce IFIE's work and investor education in their jurisdictions, as well as in international platforms.
Moreover, there are those like Mr. Alparslan Budak, whom many IFIE member colleagues have worked with as our Assistant Secretary General, who must also play leadership roles in shaping our programmes, providing research, evaluation, analysis, communication, educational materials and liaisoning with multilateral and other essential stakeholders in this process.
All of us in IFIE realize that our investor education efforts are a process and that many different functional professionals have roles to play. In this volatile and dynamically complex global environment for financial markets and our economies, it can be challenging at every level but I think it is very important to keep all of us mindful of the needs of investors.
Q: There are so many critical issues facing leaders in organizations like yours. What are priority concerns for TSPAKB and you as Chairman in the area of financial literacy and investor education?
A: Our Board of Directors took office very recently, in May 2011. As the Chairman of the Board, I must say that we fully support the work started by the previous management on investor education.
As the new Board of the Association, in an environment where macroeconomic stability is restored, we think that the Turkish capital markets need to be restructured. To achieve this goal, we have declared three main priorities: training of market professionals, contributing to development of new instruments and expanding the investor base.
Among those priorities, the most ambitious one is about the investor base. In this regard, we believe that our investor education efforts will play a pivotal role.
Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
A: I would like to add that the performance of the Turkish economy has been outstanding during the last decade. The high-inflation period has ended and the economy has grown considerably, while Turkey was able to reduce its budget deficit and outstanding debt. As economic and political stability are restored, the Turkish capital market's outlook is promising.
Within this favourable environment, investor preferences and perceptions are changing. On the other hand, new products are being introduced to the market, such as warrants, structured funds and other derivatives. Therefore, we have to take into account the evolving needs of investors and inform them about the risks of new investment products, while we are running our program.
In Turkey, we have initiated several long-run projects concurrently. Investor education campaign is the most important one of them. There are many steps to be taken. But we already started it. From now on, we will be patient and committed. I am sure that within ten years, we will see a more developed and sophisticated market in Turkey.
Q: Thank you so much for your time.
A: Thank you to IFIE. I look forward to working with IFIE and AFIE colleagues and meeting face to face, including at the IFIE-IOSCO Global Investor Education Conference in Seoul in May 2012!
Alparsan Budak
Assistant Secretary General, The Association of Capital Market Intermediary Institutions of Turkey
