İSKİ scrapping contract with Bank Asya sparks reactions

The İstanbul Waterworks Authority's (İSKİ) decision to terminate its contract with Bank Asya for the collection of İSKİ bills through automatic payment orders has caused discontent among the customers of the bank.

Speaking to Today's Zaman, customers say they feel they are being treated like second class citizens and that they cannot find any responsible unit in the water authority to refer their pleas and protests to.

Vildan Gündoğdu, 56, said she has two other accounts at banks other than her Bank Asya one but she doesn't want to use them. She said she wants a satisfactory explanation from İSKİ as to why it decided to discontinue the agreement with Bank Asya. “I call on the prime minister, deputies and the mayor of İstanbul and say I preferred Bank Asya as this bank offers Islamic banking services. So please don't punish me for this.”

Serdar Şake, who works in education, said İSKİ's decision will cause problems for him, such as making late payments as they have no other bank to work with than Bank Asya. “They may even do the same thing for natural gas and electricity bills, too. How on earth can they prevent me from using any bank I want,” he said.

Süleyman Başa from İstanbul's Güngören district said he has been using Bank Asya for the last seven years and asked, “Why do I have to open a new account in another bank when I am happy with my bank, which offers me privileges and is the bank in which my monthly wage is deposited?”

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 28 September 2014, Sunday