The Central Bank of Republic of Turkey (“CBRT”) has decided to increase the minimum requirements with regard to the own funds1 of institutions set out in the E-Money Regulation2 (“Regulation”), which was published in the Official Gazette in December 2021. This comes as no surprise, as Turkey’s national currency, the Lira, took a huge hit in recent weeks. The Lira has lost around 40 per cent of its value since the start of the year, and amendments to monetary limits expressed in Lira in various laws and regulations are inevitable.
Accordingly, CBRT published a Communique on January 22nd, stating that the minimum requirements concerning own funds have been raised:
- from 3,000,000 TRY to 5,500,000 TRY for payment institutions exclusively mediating bill payments,
- from 5,000,000 TRY to 9,000,000 TRY for payment institutions excluding the ones providing information on consolidated accounts of customers online as specified in paragraph g of Article 4 of the Regulation,
- from 13,000,000 TRY to 25,000,000 TRY for electronic money institutions.
The new requirements will come into effect on April 1st, 2022.
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