Recent Development in MASAK Legislation: Fintechs Can Perform Remote Identification
The Communiqué on the Amendment to the General Communiqué of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (Serial No: 19) (Serial No: 25) (Communiqué) was published in the Official Gazette dated 4 November 2023. With the Communiqué, the expected amendment to the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) legislation regarding remote identification (remote customer acquisition) of fintechs was realized.
The legal basis of the issue is as follows: MASAK Communiqué No:19 introduced regulations on remote identification methods of financial institutions. For fintechs, although they were obliged to comply with MASAK, the MASAK Communiqué No. 19 did not regulate the remote identification methods. In addition, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (TCMB) regulations allowed fintechs to acquire customers remotely. In this respect, although there were TCMB regulations for fintechs, they could not perform remote customer acquisition as the relevant processes were not made feasible in the MASAK legislation.
With the recent development in MASAK legislation, the Communiqué enables fintechs to conduct remote customer acquisition in accordance with both the TCMB and MASAK legislation. As a result, both TCMB and MASAK regulations have become harmonized great extent in terms of remote customer acquisition for fintechs.
Accordingly, fintechs will now be able to carry out this process in accordance with the regulations in the “Communiqué on Information Systems of Payment and Electronic Money Institutions and Data Sharing Services of Payment Service Providers in the Field of Payment Services”, which banks are subject to for remote identification and subsequent processes.
You can reach the relevant Communiqué here (only available in Turkish).
Successful