Ministry of Treasury and Finance published Communiqué on the Amendment of "General Communiqué of the Financial Crimes Investigation Board ("Communiqué No. 19")" (No.24) ("Amendment Communiqué") in the Official Gazette dated August 11, 2023 and numbered 32276 which entered into force as of the date of its publication.
What Changed with the Amendment Communiqué?
The Financial Crimes Investigation Board ("FCIB") regulates the procedures and principles regarding the remote identification methods to be used in order to verify the identity of the customer as per Communiqué No. 19, which was published in the Official Gazette dated April 30, 2021.In this context, the customers who are identified remotely are defined as "real person" or "real person merchant" with Turkish nationality under Communiqué No. 19.
With the Amendment Communiqué, "legal entities registered in the trade registry" have been added within the scope of the customer definition, which is mentioned hereinabove. Further to this, general principles regarding remote customer identification have been amended and it has been stipulated that remote identification process shall be conducted online, audio visual and on an uninterrupted and in real time basis. Also, FCIB required all steps of the identification process to be recorded and stored in an auditable way and if the remote customer identification process is outsourced, FCIB required to obtain this service from eligible entities with specific certification.
On the other hand, FCIB has added a new precaution regarding the remote customer identification. According to this, if the identity document of a person cannot be verified by the financial institution by using near-field communication method, prior to the relevant financial institution establishing a long-term business relationship with that person, the first financial transaction must be made from the account of that person in another financial institution, of which he or she is already onboarded as a customer in accordance with the " know your customer" principle.
The Amendment Communiqué also enabled the remote customer identification process to be carried out using artificial intelligence-based methods and outlined these principles in detail.
Conclusion
FCIB introduced new rules and precautionary measures regarding the remote customer identification process to the obliged financial institutions with the Amendment Communiqué. FCIB aims to expand this practice to a larger customer base by including legal entities registered in the trade registry to the scope of customers to be identified remotely.
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