What is remote identity verification?
Remote identity verification (uzaktan kimlik tespiti) means establishing a new customer’s identity through a digital channel, without a face-to-face meeting, so that an account can be opened or a business relationship started online. It is the regulated core of digital onboarding (KYC). In Türkiye the rules differ by sector.
Banks: the BDDK regulation
Banks follow the BDDK Regulation on Remote Identification Methods to be Used by Banks and Establishing Contractual Relationships Electronically (Official Gazette 1 April 2021, No. 31441), in force since 1 May 2021. Under it, remote identification takes place through an online video call between a customer representative and the person, without them being in the same physical place. Contracts formed in the way the Regulation describes satisfy the written-form requirement.
Payment and e-money institutions: the 2026 changes
On 4 September 2026 (Official Gazette No. 33360) TCMB amended Article 41(4) of the Payment Services Regulation to refer to identification through remote communication “by biometric methods or identity documents with electronic authentication capability”. The same day it amended Article 22 of its communiqué on information systems and data-sharing services: the person’s biometric data is now part of the process, the identity document is to be checked primarily through near-field communication (NFC), and fallback methods (optical character recognition, a card reader or another method TCMB sets after obtaining MASAK’s opinion) apply only where NFC verification cannot be done. Both texts took effect on publication.
Practical notes
An onboarding flow therefore needs NFC chip reading, biometric capture and an uninterrupted record of the document checks. Biometric data also brings data-protection obligations that should be designed in from the start.
Does the September 2026 change apply to banks?
Largely no. The new biometric and NFC steps are in TCMB’s communiqué, which governs payment and e-money institutions. The amended Article 41(4) of the Payment Services Regulation speaks of payment service providers, a term that also covers banks, but remote identification of bank customers remains governed by BDDK’s 2021 regulation.
Can foreign nationals be onboarded remotely?
For payment and e-money institutions, the amended communiqué allows remote identification of non-Turkish nationals with an NFC-enabled passport compliant with ICAO standard 9303, under Article 4/C of MASAK General Communiqué No. 19.
Related: MASAK, eIDAS 2.0, Strong Customer Authentication.