Relevant Legislation

• Law No. 5549 on Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime
• MASAK General Communiqué No. 3

Definition of Suspicious Transaction

It is stipulated in the Article 4 of the Law No.5549 that if there is any information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that the asset, which is subject to the transactions carried out or attempted to be carried out within or through the obliged parties, is acquired through illegal ways or used for illegal purposes, these transactions are reported to MASAK by the obliged parties.

According to Article 27 (1) of the Regulation on Measures regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism,  suspicious transaction is the case where there is any information, suspicion or reasonable grounds to suspect that the asset, which is subject to the transactions carried out or attempted to be carried out within or through the obliged parties, has been acquired through illegal ways or used for illegal purposes and is used, in this scope, for terrorist activities or by terrorist organizations, terrorists or those who finance terrorism.

Principles and Procedures of Suspicious Transaction Reporting

Suspicious transaction reporting is carried out in accordance with the procedures of suspicious transaction reporting established in the Regulation on Measures regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism, and MASAK General Communiqué No 2 and 4.

Requirements Prior to Reporting Suspicious Transaction

When obliged parties encounter a suspicious transaction; after making the necessary customer identification they fill in a Suspicious Transaction Reporting Form (STRF) taking into account the information and the findings obtained from an inquiry that they carried out, if necessary, to the extent of their authority and capability and send it to MASAK. In the event that new information and findings in relation to the reported transaction are obtained afterwards, another Suspicious Transaction Reporting Form is filled and sent to MASAK by addressing that it is an additional report to the previous one.

When necessary, multiple transactions shall be taken into consideration together in order to determine whether there is suspicion or a reasonable ground to suspect. Reporting the suspicious transactions in the scope of permanent submitting requirement does not remove the obligation to reporting suspicious transactions separately.

Filling up and Signing the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Form

The liable parties shall report suspicious transactions that they encounter without any monetary limits by means of the Form of Reporting Suspicious Transaction. After the information detected concerning A,B,C and D parts of the Form is written down, the suspicious transaction detected shall be shown by fixing (x) mark opposite side of the options from 1 to 21 that one of which is appropriate. If the transaction does not correspond the types of the options, the following option showed as “Other Situations” numbered 21 shall be marked and the suspicious transaction known shall be written down in that option. In the report of suspicious transactions connected with financing of terrorism the type no.20 is marked. Following the marking, in the section D “Type of Transaction and explanatory information”, related type of transaction is written if it is stated in the suspicious transaction types specified in the General Communique Of Suspicious Transaction Reporting Regarding Terrorist Financing or explanatory information is written if the transaction is not included in these types.

In the case that the liable parties want to give other information excluding in that of Form can be sent by writing in any way without being subject to any formation as attached to this Form.

After the Form is completed, it shall be signed by the person carried out that transaction in company with a person authorized to sign in terms of resulting that transaction. The officials at the level of branch director shall execute the second signature in the banks and special finance houses.

The time allowed for reporting suspicious transactions

Suspicious transactions shall be reported to MASAK within a maximum of ten work days starting from the date the transaction is detected.

The place of reporting suspicious transactions

The liable parties shall send “The Form of Reporting Suspicious Transaction” organized by them to the following address in the time allowed for reporting: Ministry of Finance The Presidency of the Board of Investigating Financial Crimes - N Blok Dikmen Cad. 06100 Dikmen/ANKARA or to the fax number(0 312) 415 25 35 or 36. The original copy of FRST shall be sent by means of registered postal service or shall be handed over without having been considered whether it was faxed.

Under the Regulation on Measures Regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism, the Ministry is authorized to determine, separately for each obliged party, principles and procedures of filling Suspicious Transaction Reporting Forms, making it obligatory to report by using electronic and IT means, and using electronic signature in suspicious transaction reports. MASAK may prepare guidelines for submitting reports electronically and the guidelines might be published electronically. Reports shall be made in accordance with these guidelines.

Those who are obliged to Report Suspicious Transactions (Obliged Parties)

Those who operate in the field of banking, insurance, individual pension, capital markets, money lending and other financial services, and postal service and transportation, lotteries and bets; those who deal with exchange, real estate, precious stones and metals, jewellery, all kinds of transportation vehicles, construction machines, historical artefacts, art works, antiques or intermediaries in these operations; notaries, sports clubs are set, by the Article 2/d of the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime Law No. 5549, as obliged parties in the implementation of Law No. 5549, and the Council of Ministers is authorized for enabling imposition of obligations to business owners and professionals not listed above.

The followings and their branches, agencies, representatives, commercial proxies and similar affiliated units are obliged parties according to the Regulation on Measures Regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism:
a)   Banks
b)   Institutions other than banks who have the authority to issue bank cards or credit cards
c)   Authorized exchange offices given in legislation on foreign exchange
ç)   Money lenders, financing and factoring companies within the scope of legislation on money lending
d)   Capital Markets Board Brokerage Houses and portfolio management companies
e)   Investment Fund managers
f)    Investment partnerships
g)   Insurance, reinsurance and pension companies
ğ)   Financial leasing companies
h)   Institutions furnishing settlement and custody services within the framework of capital   markets board legislation
ı)    Presidency of Istanbul Gold Exchange pertaining only to its custody service.
i)    General Directorate of Post and cargo companies
j)    Assets management companies
k)   Dealers of precious metals, stones and jewelleries
l)    Directorate General of Turkish Mint pertaining only to its activities of minting republican gold coins and ornamental republican gold coins
m)  Precious metals exchange intermediaries
n)   Those who buy and sell immovables for trading purposes and intermediaries of these transactions 
o)   Dealers of any kind of sea, air and land transportation vehicles including construction machines
ö)   Dealers and auctioneers of historical artifacts, antiques and works of art
p)   Those who operate in the field of lotteries and betting including Turkish National Lottery Administration, Turkish Jockey Club and Football Pools Organization Directorate
r)   Sports Clubs
s)   Public notaries
ş)   Freelance lawyers pertaining only to functions within the scope of paragraph 2 in Article 35 of Law No. 1136 on Lawyers such as trading of immovables, establishing, managing and transferring companies, foundations and associations provided that these functions are not contrary, in terms of right of defending, to provisions of other laws .
t)    Certified general accountants, certified public accountants and sworn-in certified public accountants operating without being attached to an employer pertaining only to functions such as establishing, managing and transferring companies, foundations and associations.

Abroad branches, agencies, representatives, commercial representatives and similar affiliated units of obliged parties whose head offices are in Turkey implement the provisions of this Regulation to the extent that the legislation and competent authorities of the country where they are located permit.

Suspicious transaction reporting is carried out personally by natural person who is an obliged party, by legal representatives of legal person who is an obliged party, by managers of unincorporated organizations or those who are authorized by them and compliance officers where an obliged party assigns a compliance officer.

Suspicious Transaction Types

• In the case that there is an attitude showing unwillingness in giving information that is required for everyone normally while a transaction is carried out; in the case that difficulties to acquire information of identity are met with; in the case that insufficient or false information is given; in the case that documents which are suspected of being counterfeit are given; in the case that misleading information concerning financial situation is declared; in the case that the transaction is not in compliance with the purpose declared.
• Transferring large amounts of money from countries or to countries in which there are illegal activities regarding narcotic substances, smuggling or in which there are terrorist organizations and, transferring large amounts of money from or to offshore centres.
• Detecting abnormal increases in the accounts of a person in banks and, within the other liable persons and, holding inactive money in large amounts in these accounts.
• That the customer transfers large amounts of money causing suspicion, to addresses and to accounts other than addresses which the customer regularly used and to which customer sent money.
• Cash movements in large amounts or such cash movement coming from abroad in the name of a person or an account of a person who has bad reputation and has no certain business, no commercial background and no commercial substructure in the country.
• Transferring money in large amounts to or from another country without generally using an account, conducting electronic funds transfers without sufficient explanation and demanding that the EFT be paid in cash.
• That there is more than one account of unaccustomed nature within the same liable party, reaching large amounts when these accounts are considered together or when holding amounts that might be combined, in different accounts by dividing them into parts, or decreasing the amounts of the transactions to lower amounts in order not to be included in ongoing reporting requirements.
• Making payments to the same account by many persons without reasonable explanations or transferring amounts of money to the same account from many different accounts.
• Opening a deposit account in order to transfer funds to foreign banks by persons whose trade volumes are so small as to not require to dealing with a bank in their home country or transferring the cash deposited only for the purpose of transferring funds into provisional accounts by keeping it in the account a short period of time without being subject to any transaction.
• The existence of accounts disproportional to commercial activities and carrying out transfers between those accounts, carrying out transactions that have not obviously originated from commercial purposes within those accounts, making payments to persons who are not clearly related to the person or to the company in usual ways.
• Receiving credit or loans in large amounts and repaying of them in short periods of time in an unexpected ways and without any reasonable explanation.
• Obtaining credit in home country by showing an account abroad as a guarantee and then providing the creditor institution with the conditions by enabling it to attach the money deposited abroad to bring to the home country by repaying credit obtained in home country through transferring from off shore banks abroad.
• When requesting credit, not giving convincing information about where it will be used and not submitting explicit information about repayment of that credit.
• Carrying out money transfers to or from another country which are similar to each other in terms of amounts and which are close to each other in terms of time.
• Giving purchasing and selling orders regarding accounts opened in stock markets and in futures markets for the purpose of pretending to carry out transactions in matching amounts and in cases where there is no purpose and no extraordinary situation.
• Carrying out similar transactions in two or more accounts in which the transactions result in profit and loss continuously and which were opened at the same time in order to transact on the stock exchange and, suspecting or knowing that the persons who profit from those accounts are the same.
• Closing a big loss originating from accounts opened through a broker by means of cash sent by different investors in every time or transferring profits from other accounts to the same investor.
• Opening accounts in very large amounts in cash through brokers and making payments while the accounts are being opened or on the date of barter in cash.
• Opening numerous accounts in which the same types of transactions are carried out, for purpose of not calling attention to the amount and movements of transactions carried out by the brokers.
• Suspecting or having reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds are related or linked to terrorism or terrorist acts or are used for those purposes.
• Other situations

Suspicious Transaction Types Related to Financing of Terrorism

a. The Types Regarding the Accounts

1) Depositing periodically to accounts which are inactive for a long time,
2) Depositing large amounts of money into an account that has a low balance and afterwards withdrawing this money from the account, or transferring it to one or more accounts,
3) Accounts for which multiple persons have authorization of  signature although there are no family or business relationships between them,
4) Delegating the authorization of signature to same person(s) for accounts opened by different companies or legal persons that have the same address,
5) Opening of many accounts by the same person and increasing of deposit, by means of repeated small amounts in a way incompatible with the economic profile of the customer,
6) Opening of an account on behalf of real and legal persons that are known to be in relation with a terrorist organization,
7) Depositing of money into the account of a person or organization in amounts that are not proportional to the business operation of the person or organization,
8) Mixing up of the cash and monetary instruments with each other, different from the normal use of the account, on transactions that are performed on an account,
9) Depositing or withdrawing money separately to or from the account by means of the different branches of the same financial institution or by a group of persons that enter to the same branch at the same time,
10) Carrying out all the transactions related to the account via ATMs,
11) Frequently depositing money into the company accounts by means of third persons with different cash and cash like instruments or paying to the third persons, or performing commercial transactions which can normally be performed by means of a check or other payment instruments on behalf of the person or institution, via depositing large amount of cash to the account of person or institution.

b. The Types Regarding Wire Transfers
12) Carrying out wire transfers with lower amounts in order to avoid legal liabilities related to identification,
13) Not submitting or unwillingly submitting the identification information of person who performs electronic transfer or on behalf of whom the transaction is performed,
14) Performing of transactions by a third person on behalf of the customer with foreign currency via electronic transfers and performing of the transactions with persons or countries that have no commercial relations.

c. The Types Regarding the Features or Business of the Customer
15) The same address information given by persons performing the cash transaction, especially mentioning the same address as the business address and the residence adress and/ or not compatible with the profession mentioned,
16) Mentioning profession or business field not proportional to or compatible with the transaction type or volume,
17) Use of a safe deposit box on behalf of the organization although the commercial activity is not known or it does not require using safe deposit box,
18) Facing unexplained inconsistencies during the process of customer identification or its verification (for example; country being previously or currently lived in, country which the passport is pertaining to, documents to be used for verifying the name, address and date of birth together with the countries that have been visited to according to passport),
19) Not having a stable address and changing address information continuously,
20) Opening an account on behalf of a commercial legal person although the activity that the customer performs does not correspond with the account opened.

d. The Types Regarding the Transactions Carried Out in Risky Countries Suspected to be Related to Terrorist Organizations
21) Transferring the money, which is in amounts that have no commercial explanation or economical purpose, electronically to a commercial account opened in a risky country and/or withdrawing this money from that account,
22) Transferring or receiving funds to risky countries and/or from these countries, opening accounts in the financial institutions located in these countries or using credit cards issued by the banks in these countries,
23) Transferring funds on behalf of the customer, by means of foreign currency exchange performed by third persons, to countries in which terrorism and smuggling are seen frequently or known as tax heaven countries, that have no open business relation with the customer,
24) Transferring to third parties the deposits acummulated in a short period of time as a result of the transfer transactions conducted from or through risky countries,
25) Collection of funds especially from or to the risky countries using a high number of personal or commercial accounts and directing those funds to a small number of beneficiaries.
26) Use of commercial financial transactions, which are not justified by logical commercial reasons, in order to transfer funds from or to risky areas.

e. Types Related To Non-Profit Organizations
27) A mismatch between the pattern and size of financial transactions or amount of funds raised or moved on the one hand, and the apparent sources, stated purpose and activities of the NPO (foundations, associations, charities, etc) on the other hand. For example, a cultural association that, after organızıng a music festival, deposits disproportionate amounts on its bank account.
28) A sudden increase in the frequency and amounts of financial transactions on the account of an NPO or the inverse, that is, the NPO appears to keep funds in its account for a very long period.
29)The absence of contributions from donors located within the country of origin of the NPO.
30) The existence of foreign directors, particularly in combination with large outgoing transactions to the country of origin of such directors and especially if destination is a high-risk jurisdiction.
31)The existence of a large number of NPOs with unexplained links: for example, several NPOs transfer money to each other or share the same address, same managers or personnel.
32)NPOs having large financial turnover which appear to have little or no staff, suitable offices or telephone numbers.
33)Receiving of the funds by using of many personal and commercial accounts or accounts of non-profit organizations and later transferring these funds to foreign beneficiaries in a short period of time.

Confidentiality of Reporting

According to Article 4 (2) of Law No.5549; The obliged parties may not give the information to anybody including the parties of the transaction that they report the suspicious transactions to the Presidency, other than the examiners assigned to conduct inspection of obligations and the courts during legal proceedings.

According to Article 29 of Regulation On Measures Regarding Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime and Financing of Terrorism;

Obliged parties shall not disclose any information to anyone including the parties of the transaction, except for the information provided for the examiners assigned for inspection of obligations and for the courts during trial, that they have reported the suspicious transaction or they will report it.

This obligation covers the persons and the institutions who report suspicious transactions or members of them who carry out and manage the transactions or their legal representatives and proxies, and the other personnel who knows in any way that the suspicious transactions have been reported. As to the obliged parties where a compliance officer is assigned, internal reports sent to the compliance officer shall be within the scope of confidentiality. The compliance officers who carry out reporting electronically shall not render anyone any card, password and other types of information and means ensuring access to the system.

Obliged parties shall not disclose their head offices, branches, agencies, representatives, commercial proxies and similar affiliated units abroad any information that they have reported a suspicious transaction in relation to their customers.

Natural and legal persons, their compliance officers, legal representatives of the obliged parties, their managers and personnel complying with the obligation of reporting suspicious transaction, shall not be held responsible judicially and criminally in any way.

Protection of Obliged Parties

According to Article 10 of law No. 5549; Natural and legal persons fulfilling their obligations in accordance with this Law may not be subject to civil and criminal responsibilities.

The information about the persons reporting suspicious transaction may not be given to the third parties, institutions and organizations other than courts even if a provision exists in special laws. Necessary measures shall be taken by Courts in order to keep secret the identities of the persons and to ensure their security.

The Sanctions to be Implemented in Violation of Obligations

According to Article 13 of Law No. 5549; The obliged parties violating any obligation shall be punished with administrative fine of five thousand New Turkish Liras by the Presidency. If the obliged party is a bank, finance company, factoring company, money lender, financial leasing company, insurance and reinsurance company, pension company, capital market institution or bureau de change, administrative fine shall be applied two-fold.

The employee who does not fulfill the obligation shall be punished with administrative fine of two thousand New Turkish Liras as well.

According to Article 17 (7) of Misdemeanor Law No.5326;
“The administrative fines are implemented as being valid from the beginning of each calendar year by increasing in the ratio of revaluation for that year determined and announced in accordance with provisions of Article reiterated 298 of tax Procedural Law No.213 dated 4.1.1961. By this means, in calculation of administrative fine, the fraction of one Turkish Liras is not taken into consideration.

5326 sayılı Kabahatler Kanununun 17 (7)’nci maddesine göre;
“İdarî para cezaları her takvim yılı başından geçerli olmak üzere o yıl için 4.1.1961 tarihli ve 213 sayılı Vergi Usul Kanununun mükerrer 298 inci maddesi hükümleri uyarınca tespit ve ilân edilen yeniden değerleme oranında artırılarak uygulanır. Bu suretle idarî para cezasının hesabında bir Türk Lirasının küsuru dikkate alınmaz.”

Accordingly, the amount of administrative fine to be imposed in violation of obligation of suspicious transaction reporting by years is shown in the table below.

Related Publications

• Suspicious Transactions Guideline