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Turkey will establish a new mortgage financing firm, similar to U.S.’s Fannie Mae, that will issue and sell mortgage-backed securities to facilitate housing ownership for lower income citizens.

The new company, named Birlesik Ipotek Finansmani AS, will have an initial capital of 10 million liras ($1.7 million). The Treasury will have a 5% stake and transfer 500,000 liras in line with its stake as founding capital, according to a presidential decree published by the official gazette on Wednesday. Owners of the remaining stake are yet to be announced.

Securitization of mortgage loans will help clear banks’ balance sheets as they struggle with a pile of bad loans and requests from companies to restructure debt as the economy stutters.

“Turkey’s Fannie Mae is being established. We think that the aim is to transfer long-term mortgage loans to the new company eventually,” TEB Investment analyst Ovunc Gursoy said. “Banks’ resources for financing such loans are scarce, so this is a positive step to support banks.”

Mortgage loans account for about 7.5% of total loans in the banking sector. The share of mortgages in total home sales is about 35%, according to official data.