Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency of Turkey ("BRSA") published "Regulation Amending the Regulation on Remote Identification Methods to be Used by Banks and the Establishment of Contract Relationship in Electronic Media" ("Regulation") in the Official Gazette dated May 25, 2023 and numbered 32201 which shall take effect as of June 1, 2023.

Prior to the afore-mentioned amendment, remote customer onboarding processes were applied only to real persons since May 1, 2021. With the Regulation, remote customer onboarding process will also be applicable for legal entities.

The verification of the persons authorized to represent the legal entities shall be made by matching the information received from the Central Registry System and/or the Trade Registry Gazette or by comparing the signature circular of the legal entity. If, however, the authorized persons are already customers of the relevant bank, identification verifications can also be carried out by logging into any of the internet banking or mobile banking distribution channels of the related bank.

Further to the above, in order to pave way for the transactions to be carried out by customer representatives via artificial intelligence-based methods, BRSA is authorized to determine the procedures and principles regarding such transactions.

In brief, BRSA has taken another step towards digitalization in the banking sector and paved way for not only real person customers but also legal entity customers to perform their banking transactions without visiting a bank branch. 

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.