Recent Development
The Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Authority (“BRSA“) presented the Draft Communiqué on Remote Identification Methods to be used by Banks (“Draft Communiqué“) with an expected effective date of January 1, 2021. The Draft Communiqué was prepared in accordance with Article 76 of the Banking Law No. 5411 (“Banking Law“) on September 21, 2020 for the public opinion.
What’s New?
The BRSA amended Article 76 of the Banking Law and introduced electronic agreements for banking services in the past months. You can refer to our legal alert dated June 29, 2020 for more information.
The Draft Communiqué introduces the remote identification methods that banks can use for the acquisition of new clients and verification of client identity.
Remote identification
The remote identification process will be carried out by the bank personnel (“Customer Representative“) through online video conference and communication with the client, without necessitating the client’s physical presence.
Remote identification via video calls will be made in real time and uninterruptedly and the call will be carried out with end-to-end encrypted communication. The client’s explicit consent must be recorded at the beginning of the call.
The image and sound quality of the communication must be of a high enough quality so as to leave no room for doubt about or any restrictions in identification.
Processes and systems for remote identification will be considered critical in accordance with the separation of duties principle; thus the initiation, approval and completion of the process will not be carried out by a single person.
Identity documents that can be used
Identity documents that can be visually distinguished under white light and have at least the following elements will be used in the process of remote identification by video calls:
- rainbow print, optical variable ink, hidden image, hologram micro lettering security items
- photo and wet signature
Verification of the validity and authenticity of the data and information contained in the presented identity document will be carried out as part of the remote identification process by video call. The bank will verify whether the identity document satisfies the criteria set forth by the competent authority, is still valid and has not been damaged or altered.
Authentication of the person to be identified
The bank will ensure that the Customer Representative is trained to make a sound decision on whether the potential client requests to be a client or to benefit from banking services of their own will.
The Customer Representative will conclude that the information provided by the potential client during the interview and the stated intention are convincing and sufficient through psychological inquiries and observations during the identification process.
During the video call, an OTP SMS (one-time password/password) that is centrally generated solely for identification process will be sent to the person. The remote identification process will be completed once the OTP SMS is entered in the application interface by the potential client and is successfully confirmed in the system.
The remote identification process will be canceled if any events disrupt the process, such as poor lighting conditions or poor image quality, or if any inconsistency, fraud or fraud attempt is detected in the process.
The entire remote identification process will be recorded and stored.
Responsibility for remote identification
The bank will be the responsible to ensure that the solutions used for remote identification are used to minimize the risk of misidentification of the potential client and will monitor those remotely identified in a different risk profile. Additional security and control methods will be applied depending on the type and amount of the transactions made by these potential clients. Regarding transactions that impose obligations on individuals or third parties, the burden of proof lies with the bank regarding any objection to these transactions.
Conclusion
The Draft Communiqué ushers in a new era in banking services, creating an environment where clients can benefit from banking services without physically going to a bank branch. With the adaptation of technological developments and growth of branchless banking, banks’ costs will decrease and banking services will become cheaper.
