As stated in the “Press Release on Bill Payment Intermediation Services” dated 31.10.2017, “services for intermediating bill payments” are counted as a payment service under subparagraph (e) of the first paragraph of Article 12 of Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions (the Law). Under Article 13 of the Law, this payment service can only be offered by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye and the following payment service providers:
a) Banks within the scope of Law No. 5411,
b) Electronic money institutions,
c) Payment institutions,
d) PTT.
Why is it so restricted?
Intermediating bill payments involves forwarding the money collected from the user to the billing institutions. In this flow, the money is briefly under the control of the intermediary. For this reason, the legislation leaves the service only to licensed and supervised institutions.
In practice, supermarket chains, dealers or collection points usually offer this service as the agent of a licensed institution. For the customer, the difference lies in whose receipt and authorization they receive.
Before paying a bill at a collection point, it is useful to check whether the institution is authorized.
