JPMorgan Chase’s Turkish securities unit plans to surrender its operating license, but the US banking group says the move concerns a brokerage that has been inactive since 2015 and does not signal a withdrawal from Turkey, Bloomberg HT reported.
J.P. Morgan Menkul Değerler announced Wednesday that it would apply to the Capital Markets Board (SPK), Turkey’s securities regulator, to cancel its license. If approved, the company will relinquish its brokerage status through dissolution or a change in its business activities.
The announcement gave clients claiming outstanding rights or receivables related to investment services three months to submit supporting documents to both the company and the regulator.
In a subsequent disclosure, the company said it had not conducted capital markets activities or provided investment services to clients since July 3, 2015. Canceling the license would bring its legal status into line with that longstanding inactivity.
The decision followed discussions with the SPK over several years and was unrelated to recent developments in Turkey, according to the statement.
The brokerage had 67 million lira ($1.4 million) in assets at the end of 2025 and recorded an operating loss of approximately 7 million lira (about $141,000), Bloomberg reported, citing a regulatory filing.
The company also said the brokerage and JPMorgan’s İstanbul banking branch are separate legal entities. The banking branch will continue operating without interruption and has decided to expand its business in Turkey, with preparations underway in coordination with regulators. The disclosure provided no details of the planned expansion.
The announcements come amid heightened scrutiny of Turkey’s capital markets following an investment fund scandal that erupted in September, when some funds could not meet investors’ withdrawal requests.
The SPK ordered the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies, affecting more than 455,000 individual investors, some of whom have since received payments. Investigators suspect funds were used to inflate share prices, increasing the apparent value of their holdings and misleading investors. Prosecutors and the regulator are examining trading in 31 companies’ shares.
Global stock index provider MSCI last week froze certain changes to its Turkish indexes over concerns about possible coordinated trading and how many shares are freely available to investors.
It warned that insufficient progress by June 2027 could trigger a process to reconsider Turkey’s emerging-market classification, potentially affecting investment by international funds that follow its indexes.
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