Financial Statement Fraud in the Turkish Financial Services Sector

Financial statement fraud is a huge obstacle to economic growth and it results in the loss of investors' trust in the financial system. In literature, financial statement fraud detected in real sector companies is investigated thoroughly, however, financial statement fraud in financial institutions is somewhat ignored. In this article, the researcher investigates the typologies and frequencies of financial statement fraud detected by the regulator. The financial services sector framework is made up of companies like banks, intermediary institutions and portfolio management companies and the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) is the regulator and auditor for the Turkish financial services sector. The author based her research on the audit findings of CMB between 2012 and 2020. According to research results, intermediary institutions are found to be the riskiest type of institution with the majority of fraud cases and the most frequently seen type of fraud is asset misappropriation of client assets. Moreover, CMB is likely not to pursue legal allegations if the company in question is awarded a sanction according to the correlation analysis result. This article has a unique approach that combines jurisprudence and fraud cases and draws attention to financial statement fraud in the financial services sector, which is a pioneer for the Turkish economy.