Its responsibilities include conducting monetary and exchange rate policy, managing international reserves of Turkey, as well as printing and issuing banknotes, and establishing, maintaining and regulating payment systems in the country.

[4] The CBRT is tasked by law to achieve and maintain price and financial stability in Turkey, and has a mandate to use, by its own discretion, whichever policy instrument at its disposal to reach these objectives.

In this organizational structure that prevailed until the second half of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire minted gold coins on behalf of the Sultan.

During the Crimean War, in 1854, the Ottoman Empire, which borrowed from other nations for the first time in history, needed a state bank to assume an intermediary function in the repayment of external debts.

The fundamental powers of the Bank were limited to lending in small amounts, making advance payments to the Government and discounting some Treasury bills.

The Imperial Ottoman Bank was granted the sole privilege of issuing banknotes for a period of thirty years.

This issue was first addressed in the 1923 Izmir Economic Congress with a special emphasis on founding a “national state bank”.

In 1927, the Minister of Finance Abdülhalik Renda submitted a draft bill on the establishment of a central bank.

[6] The shares of the Bank, which acquired legal status as a joint stock company; - to manifest that ‘it is not a public entity’, and that ‘it is independent’, were divided into (A), (B), (C) and (D) classes.

Class (A) shares belong solely to the Treasury, and, for the purpose of strengthening the Bank's independence, it is stipulated in the Law No.

An important development for the Central Bank in that period was the establishment of the Banknote Printing Plant in 1955 and from 1957 onwards banknote-printing started in Turkey.

With the transition to planned economy in the 1960s, the Central Bank continued to provide resources to the public sector by pursuing expansionary monetary policies made possible by the economic circumstances and industrial development.

It was during this time that the majority of practices related to foreign exchange control were transferred to the Central Bank.

This Law brought significant changes to the legal status, organizational structure, duties and powers of the Bank.

The Bank was authorized, through rediscount transactions, to lend medium-term loans to support investments and economic development.

The upper limit for short-term advances to the Treasury was increased to 15 percent of budget allocations pertaining to the respective year.

With the launch of the financial liberalization process, important steps were taken to ensure the necessary infrastructure for implementation of monetary and exchange rate policies in compliance with the market economy.

In addition, it was incorporated into the Law that the Bank would carry out its fundamental duties in compliance with the basic requirements of the economy and with the objective of achieving price stability.

A period of uncontrollable inflation paved the way for the adoption, in the year 2000, of an exchange rate based new stability program.

However, amid the aggravating loss of confidence in the economy that started by the end of 2000 and the crisis that broke out in mid-2001, the said program ceased to be implemented and free floating exchange rate regime was adopted on 22 February 2001.

Moreover, the Law also stipulated that the Bank would support the growth and employment policies of the Government without conflicting with the objective of achieving and maintaining price stability.

In 2002, the Central Bank adopted a modern monetary policy strategy, namely the “inflation targeting regime”.

Upon achieving some progress in the disinflation process, a two-stage monetary reform was launched in order to emphasize the Bank's determination in its efforts, to enhance the credibility of the Turkish currency, and to eliminate various problems arising from high denomination.

As of today, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, as a credible institution, pursues its policy implementations with its qualified staff members and modern infrastructure within an ever-dynamic framework by keeping a close watch on global and domestic developments.

1211, which was enacted on 26 January 1970, redefined the duties and responsibilities of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, so as to implement the money and credit policy within the framework of development plans.