Türkiye’s new regulation regarding “FATF travel rule”
The “FATF Travel Rule” is an update of FATF’s Recommendation 16. FATF‘s Recommendation 16, aims to prevent the laundering of proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorism by ensuring accurate and complete sender and recipient information in electronic transfers and this recommendation implemented in three cases:
- a traditional wire transfer transaction
- a virtual asset transfer between a VASP and another obliged entity,
- a virtual asset transfer between a VASP and a self-hosted wallet.
The “FATF Travel Rule” is the application of the electronic transfer obligations introduced by FATF’s Recommendation 16 in the context of crypto assets. This rule requires VASPs to promptly and securely receive, store and transmit information required by cryptoasset service providers in virtual asset transfers.
Turkey made a new regulation on December 25, 2024 (in order to comply with the FATF travel rule provisions). This regulation, which will enter into force on 25 February 2025, imposes new obligations on crypto asset service providers. In addition, the threshold value of 1.000 USD/Euro recommended by the FATF was set at 15.000 Turkish Liras by the legislator. According to this regulation;
Information about the sender that should be included
- Name and surname, the title of the legal entity registered in the trade registry, full name of other legal entities and entities without legal personality,
- Wallet address, or in the absence of a wallet address, the reference number associated with the transaction,
- At least one of the information used to identify the sender, such as address or place and date of birth or customer number, citizenship number, passport number, tax identification number (Transactions under 15.000 Turkish Liras do not need to be included)
Information about the recipient that should be included
- Name and surname, the title of the legal entity registered in the trade registry, full name of other legal entities and entities without legal personality,
- Wallet address, or in the absence of a wallet address, the reference number associated with the transaction,
While confirmation of the recipient's information is not mandatory in any transaction, confirmation of the sender's information is not mandatory only for crypto asset transfers under 15,000 Turkish Liras. In case there is a lack of information in the messages, crypto asset service providers should ask for the completion of this deficiency.