Turkey Fintech Regulation Timeline 2013–2026

Turkish fintech regulation is not one code but a stack of laws, regulations and communiqués issued by several authorities: the Central Bank (CBRT, Turkish: TCMB) for payments, BDDK for banks, the Capital Markets Board (SPK) for investment and crypto, MASAK for anti-money-laundering, and KVKK for data. This timeline lists the milestones that matter most to a foreign investor or founder, in date order, with the official or secondary source for each. The full Turkish-language tracker, updated continuously, is at /mevzuat.

2013–2019: building the non-bank payments regime

Date	Authority	Milestone
27 Jun 2013	Parliament	Law No. 6493 on payment and securities settlement systems, payment services and e-money institutions enters into force (Official Gazette 28690). It creates the payment institution and e-money institution licences, initially supervised by BDDK.
3 Oct 2019	SPK	Communiqué III-35/A.1 sets the rules for equity crowdfunding platforms.
22 Nov 2019	Parliament	Law No. 7192 moves regulation, licensing and supervision of payment and e-money institutions from BDDK to the CBRT, effective 1 January 2020.

The 2019 transfer is the single most important structural change: from 2020 the institution that runs the payment systems also licenses the firms that use them.

2020–2021: infrastructure and the 2021 rulebook

Date	Authority	Milestone
15 Mar 2020	BDDK	Regulation on banks’ information systems and electronic banking (in force 1 July 2020) lays the groundwork for open banking at banks.
21 Aug 2020	CBRT	TR QR code regulation sets a common standard for QR codes in payment services.
8 Jan 2021	CBRT	FAST instant payment system and Easy Addressing (KOLAS) go live: 24/7 transfers using phone number, e-mail or ID number as an alias.
1 Apr 2021	BDDK	Remote identity verification for banks; video onboarding starts 1 May 2021.
16 Apr 2021	CBRT	Crypto ban in payments: crypto may not be used directly or indirectly for payments, and payment/e-money institutions may not intermediate for crypto platforms (in force 30 April 2021; Official Gazette 31456).
27 Oct 2021	SPK	Crowdfunding communiqué III-35/A.2 adds debt-based crowdfunding.
1 Dec 2021	CBRT	Regulation on Payment Services and E-Money Issuance (Official Gazette 31676) rewrites licensing, capital, shareholder and conduct rules and defines payment initiation and account information services — Turkey’s open banking services.
1 Dec 2021	CBRT	Communiqué on information systems and payment services data sharing services (ÖHVPS) sets the open banking API framework.
29 Dec 2021	BDDK	Regulation on digital banks and banking-as-a-service (in force 1 January 2022).

2022–2023: open banking, FAST opening and the first digital bank

Date	Authority	Milestone
1 Dec 2022	BKM	Banks begin offering payment initiation and account information via GEÇİT, the open banking gateway operated by BKM.
26 Dec 2022	CBRT	Payment and e-money institutions may join FAST directly from 2023; FAST merchant payments (QR/POS) to start in Q1 2023 (press release 2022-53).
29 Dec 2022	CBRT	First payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira network (Phase 1; press release 2022-55).
31 Mar 2023	BDDK	First digital bank establishment permit, granted to T.O.M. Katılım Bankası, published in the Official Gazette.

2024: data, FAST limits and the crypto law

Date	Authority	Milestone
12 Mar 2024	Parliament / KVKK	Law No. 7499 rewrites Article 9 of the data protection law, introducing standard contracts and binding corporate rules for cross-border data transfers (in force 1 June 2024).
2 Apr 2024	CBRT	From 4 April 2024, FAST transfer limit raised to TRY 100,000 and FAST QR merchant payment limit to TRY 250,000 (press release 2024-16).
2 Jul 2024	Parliament	Law No. 7518 amends the Capital Markets Law: crypto asset service providers require SPK authorisation and supervision, with a transition timetable for existing platforms (Official Gazette 32590).
31 Oct 2024	BDDK	Operating licences for Colendi Bank, FUPS Bank and Ziraat Dinamik Banka, all flagged as digital banks.
25 Dec 2024	MASAK	Travel rule for crypto transfers: originator and beneficiary data must be transmitted, with full verification for transfers of TRY 15,000 and above (phased in by 25 February 2025); the threshold was raised to TRY 30,000 by Decision No. 11845 (Official Gazette, 7 Oct 2026).

2025: capital, crypto secondary rules and consolidation

Date	Authority	Milestone
30 Jan 2025	CBRT	New minimum equity from 30 June 2025: TRY 15m (bill-payment-only payment institutions), TRY 30m (other payment institutions), TRY 80m (e-money institutions).
13 Mar 2025	SPK	Communiqués III-35/B.1 (establishment and operations) and III-35/B.2 (working principles and capital adequacy) for crypto asset service providers.
28 Jun 2025	MASAK	General Communiqué No. 29: 48/72-hour withdrawal waiting periods on crypto platforms and daily/monthly limits on stablecoin transfers (Official Gazette 32940).
3 Sep 2025	CBRT	Call for projects for Digital Turkish Lira Phase 2 (applications 4 September – 15 October 2025).
31 Dec 2025	CBRT	Amendments to the payment services regulation on value-added open banking services, treating remote channel systems as critical, and BKM gateway timelines.

2026: enforcement, open banking 2.0 and higher limits

Date	Authority	Milestone
31 Jan 2026	CBRT	Minimum equity raised again from 30 June 2026: TRY 20m / TRY 40m / TRY 105m (Official Gazette 33154).
17 Mar 2026	CBRT	ÖHVPS 2.0.0: card data, future-dated and recurring payments added to the open banking API standard; 53 participants and 16.4 million active users at the time.
29 Jul 2026	CBRT	Citizens (and heirs) can see accounts held at payment and e-money institutions via e-Devlet (press release 2026-30).
3 Aug 2026	CBRT	Digital Turkish Lira: 23 projects from 12 banks and 6 payment/e-money institutions move into the sandbox (press release 2026-33).
24–26 Aug 2026	CBRT	FAST limit raised to TRY 300,000 for transfers and request-to-pay (from TRY 100,000) and for dynamic TR QR merchant payments (from TRY 250,000), effective 26 August (press release 2026-36).
26 Aug – 23 Sep 2026	CBRT	Licence revocations published for Payco and Junomoney (26 Aug), TRPOS (9 Sep) and Papel (23 Sep).
4 Sep 2026	CBRT	Remote onboarding at payment and e-money institutions may use biometrics and NFC chip checks; foreigners can onboard with an ICAO 9303-compliant NFC passport.
6 Sep 2026	Presidency	Medium-Term Programme 2027–2029 targets completing Digital Turkish Lira infrastructure in Q3 2027, expanding FAST overlay services, raising TROY’s share and a cyber-resilience rule for payment institutions.
12 Sep 2026	MASAK	Suspicious transaction guidance on hawala and alternative value transfer systems, covering banks, payment/e-money institutions, crypto providers and precious metals dealers.

Themes for investors

1. Payments: steady tightening

The capital floor for an e-money institution rose from TRY 80 million to TRY 105 million within a year, and 2026 brought a cluster of licence revocations, several linked to illegal betting and money-laundering investigations. The CBRT register fell from 24 payment institutions and 62 e-money institutions at year-end 2025 to 20 and 55 on 25 September 2026. Expect diligence on shareholders, merchant onboarding and transaction monitoring to intensify. See payment and e-money licensing in Turkey.

2. Crypto: from unregulated to SPK-licensed

Law 7518 (July 2024), the SPK communiqués (March 2025) and the MASAK travel rule and withdrawal waiting periods created a full regime in about a year. SPK’s transitional “operating” list dated 28 August 2026 had 52 entries (43 platforms, 9 custody applicants), while a separate liquidation list dated 21 September 2026 had 56 entries. SPK stresses that being on the operating list does not mean authorisation. Payments in crypto remain prohibited under the 2021 CBRT rule.

3. Open banking: standard-led, now expanding

Turkey built open banking on Law 6493 rather than PSD2, with BKM’s GEÇİT gateway as a central hub. Version 2.0.0 of the API standard (March 2026) added cards and recurring payments. Details in open banking and instant payments in Turkey.

4. FAST: limits rising with inflation

The FAST ceiling was TRY 50,000 for transfers until April 2024, TRY 100,000 until August 2026 and is TRY 300,000 now; the QR merchant ceiling moved from TRY 100,000 to TRY 250,000 and then TRY 300,000 over the same dates (CBRT press releases 2024-16 and 2026-36).

5. Digital Turkish Lira: still pilot

There is no issuance decision. The Phase 2 call drew 85 applications from 16 banks and 25 payment/e-money institutions; 51 projects progressed to a second stage and 23 to the sandbox (CBRT, August 2026). The Medium-Term Programme’s Q3 2027 target refers to completing infrastructure, not to launch.

How to use this timeline

Dates above are publication dates unless an effective date is stated. Secondary rules change several times a year, so treat any single entry as a pointer to the primary text. For current market data see Turkey fintech market 2026 in numbers; for the regulators themselves see /kurumlar.