Changes Made in the Transaction Limits Which Arise the Obligation of Customer Identification

The Regulation Amending the Regulation on Measures regarding the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism ("The Amending Measures Regulation") has been published in the Official Gazette dated 16 June 2022 and numbered 31868.

The Amending Measures Regulation changes Article 5 of the Measures Regulation which stipulates the transactions that arise the obligation to identify the customers. Paragraph (b) stipulates the transaction sub-limits for the amount of a single transaction or the total amount of more than one related transaction, arising from the obligation to identify the customers for the transactions conducted by the obliged parties. The sub-limit for the amount of a single transaction or the total amount of more than one related transaction has been increased from TRY 75,000.00 to TRY 85,000.00. The Amending Measures Regulation is entering into force as of its publish date in the Official Gazette.

The obliged parties defined under the Measures Regulation are as below:

1) Banks.

2) Institutions other than banks that have the authority to issue bank cards or credit cards.

3) Authorized exchange offices that are given in legislation on foreign exchange.

4) Financing and factoring companies.

5) Capital Markets Brokerage Houses and portfolio management companies.

6) Payment service providers and electronic money institutions.

7) Investment partnerships.

8) Insurance, reinsurance, and pension companies, and insurance and reinsurance brokers.

9) Financial leasing companies.

10) Institutions furnishing settlement and custody services within the framework of capital markets legislation.

11) Borsa Istanbul A.Ş. pertaining only to its custody service related to Precious Metals and Precious Stones Market.

12) PTT Corporate (Company of Post and Telegraph Organization) and cargo companies.

13) Assets management companies.

14) Dealers of precious metals, stones, and jewelry.

15) Directorate General of Turkish Mint pertaining only to its activities of minting gold coins.

16) Precious metals intermediaries.

17) Those who buy and sell immovables for trading purposes and intermediaries of these transactions.

18) Dealers of any kind of sea, air, and land transportation vehicles, including construction machines.

19) Dealers and auctioneers of historical artifacts, antiques, and works of art.

20) Those who operate in the field of lotteries and betting, including the Turkish National Lottery Administration, Turkish Jockey Club, and Football Pools Organization Directorate.

21) Sports Clubs.

22) Public notaries.

23) Freelance lawyers pertaining only to functions within the scope of paragraph 2 in Article 35 of Law No. 1136 on Lawyers such as trading of immovables, establishing, managing and transferring companies, foundations and associations provided that these functions are not contrary, in terms of the right of defending, to provisions of other laws.

24) Certified general accountants, certified public accountants and sworn-in certified public accountants operating without being attached to an employer.

25) Independent audit institutions authorized to conduct an audit in financial markets.

26) Crypto asset management service providers.

27) Saving finance service providers.

It is crucial for all obliged parties to update their know-your-customer systems to integrate with the new transaction limits under monitoring.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to our experts for deeper insight into KYC systems, third-party and transaction monitoring, and AML compliance.