The Communiqué on the Amendment of the General Communiqué of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (Serial No: 5) (“General Communiqué”) (Serial No: 31) (“Amending Communiqué”) was published in the Official Gazette dated 7 January 2026 and numbered 33130. With the Amending Communiqué, the procedures and principles regarding customer identification and customer acceptance have been revised; transactions involving foreign politically exposed persons, payments to third parties, and identity verification processes conducted via bank accounts have been re-regulated. Certain provisions of the Communiqué will enter into force on 1 February 2026, while the remaining provisions entered into force on the date of publication.
With the Amending Communiqué published by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, amendments have been introduced to the General Communiqué regarding customer identification and customer acceptance processes. In this context, the provision governing the assessment of customer transactions has been expanded to to expressly cover cases where the customer qualifies as a foreign politically exposed person and to clarify that simplified measures may not be applied in such cases.
With the Communiqué:
- For insurance and pension companies, in respect of damage and compensation payments to third parties other than the policyholder or the insured, the obligation to conduct additional identity verification and to obtain a specimen signature has been removed, provided that the identity information is verified through a public database and the payment is made via a bank account consistent with the individual’s identity information.
- For the purpose of verifying identity information prior to customer acceptance, it has been made mandatory for a monetary transfer to be made from a bank or credit card account consistent with the prospective customer’s identity information to a verification account established by the obliged party; until such transfer is completed, customer acceptance and the provision of any services are not permitted.
- For bank accounts opened upon the written request of public institutions and organizations for the purpose of carrying out mandatory payments, the obligations regarding identity verification and the obtaining of a specimen signature have been relaxed, provided that certain conditions are met; however, it has been stipulated that no use of the account shall be permitted until the identity verification process is completed.
The full text of the Communiqué can be reached via this link (Only available in Turkish).
