On 25 November 2022, a regulation and a communiqu amending the Regulation on Cost Companies and Digital Cash Issuance and Cost Service Suppliers (“Regulation”) and the Communiqu on Info Programs of Cost and Digital Cash Establishments and Information Sharing Companies of Cost Service Suppliers within the Area of Cost Companies (“Communiqu”), which had been ready by the Central Financial institution of the Republic of Turkey (“CBRT”) and revealed within the Official Gazette dated December 1, 2021 and numbered 31676, had been revealed within the Official Gazette dated 25 November 2022 and numbered 32024.

Via these amendments, the one-year interval granted to cost and digital cash establishments that had been in operation or filed an software for an operation allow previous to 1 December 2021, the date of entry into drive of the Regulation and Communiqu, so as to adjust to the Regulation and Communiqu has been prolonged till 28 February 2023.

Upon requests from the sector, one week earlier than the expiry of the mentioned one yr interval, the CBRT determined to increase most of those deadlines for an additional 3 months. Thus, cost establishments had been inspired to proceed their actions in accordance with the laws.

The Related Amended Provisions of the Regulation

The primary modification to the Regulation is the postponement of the one-year transition interval for establishments which have been in operation as of 1 December 2021, the effectiveness date of the Regulation (“Effectiveness Date”), to adjust to the provisions of the Regulation, which was resulting from expire on 1 December 2022, was prolonged by three months to twenty-eight February 2023.

No modifications have been launched to the provisions of the Regulation relating to compliance with the usage of the Turkish Lira in transactions associated to the availability of cost companies and the prohibition on international foreign money transactions in instances the place each events are residents of Turkey.

The modification to the Regulation stipulates that the 1-year interval for the implementation of framework company agreements will begin from the date the framework settlement publication was revealed by the Affiliation of Cost and Digital Cash Establishments of Turkey.

The deadline for compliance with the provisions of the Regulation has been prolonged to February 28, 2023 for authorized entities that concern pay as you go cost devices which:

a) are in use on the Effectiveness Date,

b) don’t adjust to the requirement stipulated underneath Article 5 of Regulation No. 6493 on Cost and Securities Settlement Programs, Cost Companies, and Digital Cash Establishments (“Regulation”), supplied that pay as you go devices that may solely be utilized in a particular service community can solely be used for purchases to be made in a particular retailer or retailer community, and

c) are designed to be legitimate in all workplaces which have been added to locations the place the pay as you go instrument can be utilized inside the scope of the contract entered into with the pay as you go instrument issuer or that was issued in compliance with the cardboard system establishments as outlined within the Regulation.

Alternatively, no modification has been made to the provisions relating to making certain rapid compliance with the Regulation’s provisions on the safety of cost funds and funds collected in trade for digital cash.

The necessities for the execution of the cost order initiation service and the service of offering customers’ cost accounts info on on-line platforms have been decided by the CBRT. Accordingly, the interval for information sharing companies associated to open banking companies that will proceed to be supplied through the use of non-standard companies has been prolonged for 3 months.

The obligations for establishments which are holding cost accounts to attach with the “Interbank Card Middle” and supply the required platform for different cost establishments that provide the service of initiating cost orders and offering customers’ cost account info on on-line platforms and the duty to take the required measures to forestall entry to open banking companies by unauthorized individuals had been prolonged till 28 February 2023.

Article 11 of the Regulation units out the provisions regarding exercise authorization, provisions relating to minimal fairness and collateral necessities, and the provisions on the safety of cost funds and funds collected towards digital cash to be relevant to establishments which have filed an software for an operation license previous to the Effectiveness Date however whose purposes have but to be concluded.

By way of different provisions, the provisions of the regulation and communiqu can be abolished as soon as the Regulation turns into efficient.

Accordingly, the interval granted to establishments that already maintain an operation license to adjust to the provisions of the Regulation that aren’t relevant and the provisions on info techniques and audits of cost establishments regulated by the CBRT has been prolonged by 3 months.

Compliance with the non-applicable provisions of the Regulation has been prolonged to twenty-eight February 2023 for authorized entities which have utilized for an working allow previous to The Effectiveness Date and which have issued pay as you go cost devices which:

a) are in use as of 1 December 1 2022,

b) that don’t adjust to the situation that pay as you go devices which might solely be utilized in a particular service community can solely be used for purchases to be made out of a particular retailer or retailer community, and

c) which are designed to be legitimate in all workplaces which have been added to the locations the place such pay as you go instrument can be utilized inside the scope of the contract with the pay as you go instrument issuer or that concern pay as you go devices in compliance with the cardboard system establishments outlined within the Regulation.

It ought to be famous that the duty of cost and digital cash establishments to adjust to the provisions of Article 20 of the Regulation relating to the restriction on holding shares in different corporations by 21 December 2022 on the newest has not been amended.

Likewise, the availability on jewellery sellers dealing within the sale and buy of processed valuable metals and valuable stones, gold and valuable steel sellers, jewellery makers, and international trade establishments that prohibits them from being representatives and that requires the termination of such illustration agreements executed with these establishments previous to the Effectiveness Date till 31 December 2022 stays to be unchanged.

Related Amended Provisions of the Communiqu

The one-year interval for establishments in operation on the Effectiveness Date to adjust to the provisions of the Communiqu, which weren’t included within the earlier Communiqu and that had been launched for the primary time with the Communiqu, has been prolonged by 3 months.

The deadline for compliance with the provisions set out in Article 24 of the Communiqu, which governs the obligations relating to information sharing companies for cost service suppliers holding cost accounts on the Effectiveness Date and which are among the many high 10 individuals by way of the whole variety of account cost transactions in 2020, has been prolonged to twenty-eight February 2023.

Article 23 of the Communiqu stipulates that information sharing companies, the technical necessities of which have been decided, can proceed to be supplied utilizing non-standard companies until28 February 2023. The CBRT has the authority to increase this era for a interval not exceeding 6 months.