Recent Developments
The Regulation Amending the Regulation on Remote Identification Methods to be Used by Banks and Establishment of Contractual Relationships in the Electronic Environment (“Amending Regulation“) was published in the Official Gazette dated May 25, 2023 and numbered 21201 by the Banking Regulatory and Supervisory Authority (“BRSA“) to enter into force on June 1, 2023. With the Amending Regulation, transactions to be carried out by legal entity customers through their real person representatives are also included within the scope of the Regulation on Remote Identification Methods to be Used by Banks and Establishment of Contractual Relationships in the Electronic Environment (“Regulation“), which regulates the remote identification methods that can be used by banks when acquiring new customers and verifying customer identity, and regulations on remote identification transactions by persons with disabilities are also stipulated. The amendment also allowed the use of artificial intelligence-based systems for remote identification. For detailed information on the Regulation on remote identification by banks, you can refer to our legal alert dated April 6, 2021.
The Amending Regulation is available online here (in Turkish).
What’s new?
With the Amending Regulation, the scope of the concept of “Person” has been expanded to cover the real person or real persons authorized to represent legal entities. Thus, legal entities are also made eligible to carry out transactions through remote identification for the transactions in question.
In addition, the concept of “Real beneficiary,” which is defined in the Regulation on Measures to Prevent the Laundering of Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism as “the real persons who perform transactions before the obligor, the real person on whose behalf the transactions are made, the real person or persons who ultimately control or have ultimate influence over legal entities or unincorporated entities,” has been added to the Regulation through a reference to the relevant regulation.
In the provision on the general principles to be followed before the process is initiated, it is indicated that remote identification will be carried out in accordance with article 4 of the Regulation on Accessibility of Banking Services and according to the disability status of persons with disabilities, and that a third party may assist in the remote identification of disabled persons. However, in order for a third party to assist disabled persons with remote identification, the identity of the relevant third party must first be checked by the customer representative.
With Article 7/A added to the Regulation, it is accepted that in the process of identification of a legal entity, the identification of the person, i.e., the representative of the legal entity, will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation, and certain requirements regarding identification will be deemed to be met if the person is already a customer of the same bank and is logged in to any of the internet banking or mobile banking distribution channels regulated in the Regulation on Information Systems and Electronic Banking Services of Banks. It is stipulated that, following the identification of the person, the representation authority must also be verified through MERSIS and/or the Trade Registry Gazette, and explanations regarding the procedure to be followed in terms of verifying the representation authority through these channels are specified.
Similarly, it is regulated that the information to be used in the identification of the legal entity in remote identification processes should be confirmed by matching the information in the queries made through the databases of MERSIS, the Trade Registry Gazette and Revenue Administration. It is also stated that necessary measures will be taken to reveal the real beneficiary of the legal entity in the process of identification of the legal entity.
Lastly, Additional Article 1 of the Regulation paves the way for artificial intelligence-based methods to be used for transactions that are stated to be performed by the customer representative in the Regulation, and it stipulates that the procedures and principles regarding this issue will be determined by the BRSA.
Conclusion
The Amending Regulation expands the scope of actors who can perform transactions through remote identification by banks in a digitalized world and aims to prevent the difficulties that may be experienced by disabled persons, while regulating the procedures to be followed in order to ensure transaction security. Further, in line with technological developments, the use of artificial intelligence-based systems has been enabled, and the BRSA has been given the authority to determine the procedure and principles for this matter.
