How does a foreigner buy a Turkish investment fund?
Almost every Turkish mutual fund is distributed through TEFAS, the Turkish Electronic Fund Distribution Platform. TEFAS is not a broker and you cannot open an account with it — it is the plumbing that lets one institution sell another institution's funds. You buy through a Turkish bank or brokerage that connects to it.
That single fact determines everything else on this page: the hard part is not the fund, it is the account.
What you actually need
- A Turkish tax number (vergi kimlik numarası). Free, issued by the tax office, and obtainable by non-residents with a passport. Almost everything else depends on it.
- A Turkish bank or brokerage account. This is the real gate. Requirements vary by institution and change often; some banks will open an account for a non-resident with a tax number and a passport, others require a residence permit, and some decline non-residents outright.
- Money in Turkish lira. Fund units are denominated in lira even when the fund holds foreign assets — see the currency guide below.
What nobody tells you upfront
- Not every fund is open to you. A large share of Turkish funds are serbest (hedge-style) funds sold only to qualified investors, a status with its own asset and experience thresholds. They appear on TEFAS and on this site, and you may still not be permitted to buy them.
- Pension (BES) funds are not purchasable at all in the ordinary sense. They exist only inside a Turkish private pension contract, with their own tax regime. If a fund's type reads emeklilik, that is what you are looking at.
- Order times are not market times. Turkish funds price once per day, and each fund has its own cut-off after which your order goes to the next day's price. Some funds settle T+1, others T+2 or later.
What this site can and cannot tell you
We publish what the fund itself publishes: prices, returns, fees, portfolio holdings and the terms filed with KAP. What we cannot tell you is whether a given bank will open an account for someone with your particular nationality and residence status — that changes bank by bank and month by month, and anyone who gives you a confident general answer is guessing.
Your tax position is not our subject either. Withholding on Turkish funds is deducted at source, but whether that is your final liability depends on where you are tax-resident and on whether a double-taxation treaty applies. That is a question for a tax adviser in your own country, not for a fund website.