Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Use of Credit Cards Before and After Bank and Credit Cards Law No. 5464 in Turkey
Suleyman Acikalin

Abstract
Turkey ranks second after England in Europe with 57 million credit cardsin the market in 2014. This paper investigates the effects of new regulations in credit card market implemented by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) after 2005. Bank Cards and Credit Cards Law No. 5464 was enacted in February 2006. New legislations changed the rules on how banks issue credit cards, how they set credit card total limits, minimum monthly payment ratios and interest rateoncreditcardbalances. The aim is to review the developments in the credit card market and to determine whether new regulations have changed the average credit card spending and the ratio of credits used by credit cardsto the total credits from 2001-2005 to 2006- 2014.The results indicate that controlling the interest rate did not lower the total use of credit cards; there is not any statistically significant change in the ratio of credit card credits to total credit but use of consumer credits in total credits increased after 2005. Annual data for the period of 2001 to 2014 is used in this study.The independent t-test is employed in comparing the mean values of chosen variables for the two periods.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jeds.v3n4a2