Debt Instrument Holders' Board Communiqué

The Capital Movements Circular ("Circular") has been amended with the letter of Ministry of Treasury and Finance of Republic of Turkey numbered 940051.

Mersis is an electronic trade registry, which is highly popular and a significant e-portal for attorneys and companies.

Turkey has moved from a largely unregulated crypto market to one of the more tightly supervised regimes in the region. For foreign investors, exchanges, and businesses holding digital assets with a Turkish nexus, understanding the current framework is no longer optional.

The information relating to Turkiye is provided for background purposes only. The information presented herein has been extracted from and is presented on the authority of various public official documents and private publications.

This article examines the legal and practical framework for opening and operating a Turkish bank account as a foreign national or foreign-owned business. It distinguishes statutory customer-identification and anti-money-laundering duties from each bank's own customer-acceptance policy. The discussion addresses passports,

SPK, halka açık olmayan ortaklıkların halka arz başvurularını ilan edilen sıradan bağımsız olarak önceliklendirmek üzere üç alternatif kriter belirledi

With its decision No. 57/1708 dated 17.09.2026, the Capital Markets Board (the “CMB”) set out the liquidation procedures for the 131 investment funds established by Tera, A1 Capital, Atlas, Bulls, Hedef, Pardus and Pusula Portföy Yönetimi, whose liquidation had been ordered under its previous decision, and updated the relevant list of funds in the same decision.

The Capital Markets Board of Türkiye has introduced comprehensive regulatory reforms affecting hedge funds and portfolio management companies, implementing new investment diversification requirements, graduated ownership caps based on free-float ratios, enhanced capital adequacy standards, and stricter personnel qualifications. These changes, effective from August 2026, establish tiered compliance deadlines and fundamentally reshape the operational framework for Turkish portfolio managers.

On 16 September 2026, the money market funds founded by Pusula Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş. defaulted after failing to meet the cash redemption requests received from investors, triggering a sharp sell off on Borsa Istanbul. The BIST 100 index lost 5.54% that same day and hit a circuit breaker; the selling soon spread to Tera Portföy funds as well. It became apparent that the problem was not confined to those two firms but also extended to Hedef, Atlas, A1 Capital, Pardus and Bulls Portföy.

Borsa Istanbul’s BIST 100 index came under significant selling pressure over three consecutive trading sessions between 15-17 September 2026. The index closed down 5.54% on 16 September, a move that triggered Borsa Istanbul’s index-linked circuit breaker, and negative momentum continued into the morning of 17 September. The sell-off was primarily triggered by a default at Pusula Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş., a portfolio management company, which failed to meet investor redemption requests from certain funds it manages in a timely manner. A similar liquidity problem emerged at Tera Portföy Yönetimi A.Ş., and this situation put pronounced pressure on the shares of both companies as well as on broader market indices.

On 10 October 2026, the Regulation on the Provision of Differentiated Services for Children and Age Verification by Social Network Providers (the "Regulation") was published in the Official Gazette. Issued by the Cyber Security Presidency, the Regulation introduces mandatory age verification, restrictions on children's access to social networks and additional safeguards for users aged 15 to 17.

In April 2024, we wrote about Turkey's newly introduced regulatory framework for electric vehicle ("EV") imports and questioned whether a regime requiring certain importers to establish their own (not through any third parties) service networks, operate a forty-person call centre and comply with additional certification and representation requirements could be reconciled with Turkey's international trade obligations1.

The Act on Amendments to the Social Services Act and Certain Other Acts (Law No. 7578) (the "Act") was published in the Official Gazette on 1 May 2026, establishing a framework addressing both social media platforms and digital games in Turkey. On the social media front, the Act prohibits social network providers from offering services to children under the age of fifteen and mandates the implementation of age verification measures to enforce this prohibition.

Turkey's Competition Authority has launched a sector inquiry into artificial intelligence. The absence of local representatives for providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic in Türkiye is being assessed in light of the findings of the Grand National Assembly's AI Commission report

Türkiye has introduced a new tax incentive for individuals relocating to the country. With the Law No. 7582 enacted on 4 June 2026, a new Article repeated 20/D has been inserted into the Income Tax Code, creating a long-term exemption from Turkish income tax on foreign-sourced income. The implementing rules were published in Income Tax General Communique No.333. This article sets out the key features of the regime and highlights the practical considerations.

Generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools have become part of day-to-day legal practice in many jurisdictions. From summarising contracts and lengthy decisions to preparing first drafts of correspondence and supporting legal research, these tools now assist lawyers at many stages of their work. As their use becomes more widespread, the focus is increasingly shifting from whether AI should have a place in legal practice to the conditions under which it can be used consistently with lawyers’ professional obligations.

Following a sector inquiry launched in December 2021 to detect structural competition concerns in the pharmaceutical sector and offer competitive solutions, the Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) published its Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry Preliminary Report on 10 August 2026, opening it for public consultation. The report examines the overall outlook of the sector together with quantitative and statistical data, summarises the TCA's enforcement activities in the sector over the past ten years, and assesses the competitive structure across the full supply chain: production, market entry, and distribution.

Turkish Competition Authority, artificial intelligence sector inquiry, digital markets regulation, merger control guidelines, Meta Threads, Uber Getir, Coca-Cola commitments, tyre sector fines, casting sector, streaming platforms, no-poach agreements, resale price maintenance, interim measures, WhatsApp AI integration, health insurance investigation, Google online advertising, seed market, freezer cabinet practices, Mastercard Visa, settlement procedure, commitment decisions

The third quarter of 2026 was marked by significant regulatory and enforcement activity from the Turkish Competition Authority ("TCA"), with pharmaceutical sector policy taking centre stage following the Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry Preliminary Report and a subsequent stakeholder workshop.

We have explained the problems in the Turkish satellite platform market, stemming from the special communications taxes in our Mondaq article titled "Special Communication Taxes in Turkish Pay TV Markets: An Illustration of Legal Uncertainty".