Law No. 7192 contains amendments to certain articles of Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions. It was announced on 22 November 2019 and entered into force on 01.01.2020.
What changes did the Law bring?
– Because the duties and powers of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) under Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions were transferred to the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT), payment institutions and e-money institutions were removed from the list of institutions from which the BRSA may collect contribution fees.
– With the CBRT becoming the sole competent authority in the field of payments, it was considered that leaving the clearing and set-off activities for debit cards and credit cards within the BRSA’s remit would be an exception. For this reason, the references to "clearing and set-off" activities, which are payment system activities, were removed from the text of Law No. 5464 on Bank Cards and Credit Cards.
– Since it was considered that the compliance and violation audits of payment and e-money institutions under the obligations set by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) should be carried out by the CBRT, CBRT Auditors and Specialists were added to the list of inspectors, specified in Law No. 5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime, who may audit these institutions.
– To facilitate the professional activities of payment and e-money institutions and to ensure the system functions more soundly, a provision was introduced for the establishment of the Turkish Payment and Electronic Money Institutions Association, for determining the procedures and principles for forming the Association’s duties, powers and bodies, and for determining the Association’s income and expenses, working principles and scope of activities through a statute to be issued by Presidential decision.
– The provision on the exemption granted by the Law to the Interbank Clearing Houses Center, whose duties relating to cheque clearing ended in 2018 and whose public legal entity status was abolished, was removed from the text of the Law.
– A provision was introduced so that the CBRT’s oversight authority covers all parties closely related to the operation of the system, so that it may request records, information and documents on all transactions carried out by institutions instantly and on a transaction basis when it deems necessary, and so that it may become a shareholder in existing and future systemically important system operators.
– System operators were allowed to request collateral from participants and to convert collateral other than capital market instruments into cash and use it, without being obliged to meet the listed preconditions.
– For the services carried out under Law No. 6493, the BRSA’s authority to issue secondary regulations was given to the CBRT.
– Provisions were introduced to establish payment services, to give the CBRT the authority to take the necessary measures in situations that may adversely affect the payments field, and to have the CBRT determine the procedures and principles for the legal relationships to which payment service providers are party under Law No. 6493.
– For payment institutions that will provide only account information services, provisions were introduced exempting them from the requirements that their shares be issued for cash and be fully registered shares, and from the minimum capital requirement, and providing that the procedures and principles for sharing data held by a payment service provider with another payment service provider will be determined by the CBRT.
– Provisions were introduced authorizing the CBRT to decide that transactions made with the e-money held by payment and e-money institutions will be evaluated under Law No. 6493 when they reach a size to be determined by the CBRT, and that transactions carried out by institutions in relation to payment services may be treated as lending activity.
– The requirement that the funds deposited by e-money institutions with banks be blocked by the banks at the CBRT was removed from the text of Law No. 6493.
– The CBRT was given authority over the audit of the activities of banks under Banking Law No. 5411 and of the Post and Telegraph Organization Inc. (PTT) under Law No. 6493.
– The CBRT was given the authority to request records, information and documents on all transactions carried out by institutions instantly and on a transaction basis when it deems necessary.
– Under Article 12 of Law No. 6493, payment service institutions providing payment initiation services and services offered on online platforms were given 1 year to obtain an operating license, 1 month from the Association’s commencement of operations to become members of the Association, and the CBRT was given 1 year to issue regulations in line with the amendments.
The most important of the changes made by the Law appears to be the transfer of regulatory and supervisory powers, previously held by the BRSA, to the CBRT.
You can find the details of the Law at the link below.
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2019/11/20191122-2.htm
