Turkey performs change and transformation in many areas to ensure to boost economic activities and to create ease of access to any service by consumers. As part of this change and transformation; Turkey is making major infrastructure investments in digitization. The technological level reached within the framework of this digital transformation; is tried to be implemented simultaneously with the legal infrastructure.
Most of the infrastructure service providers, which offer serious facilities in the field of financial technologies, are mostly preferred by banks and this technological integration is provided within the scope of both account opening and other transactions in the business processes of the bank with its customers. Innovations brought by this digitalization in the context of the bank's business processes; plays an important role in the agility of business processes, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and perfecting the customer experience.
In this context; The Regulation on Remote Identification Methods to be used by Banks and the Establishment of Contract Relations in the Electronic Environment ('Regulation') published in the Official Gazette which regulates the usage of distant information technology for remote identification methods and used by banks to gain new customers and for banking services to be offered after the identification of the customer. Also, It regulates the procedures and principles regarding the establishment of a contractual relationship over the electronic communication device as a substitute for the written form or at a distance and this Regulation will enter into force on 01.05.2021.
Remote Identification Procedure
Within the scope of the regulation; the identity document of customers to be used for remote identification is the official ID cards issued by the Turkish Government, consisting of photos and signatures of the owner, also known as new identities. This identification will be made through an online video call between the customer representative of the bank, who is authorized to make this identification, and the customer.
This meeting will be held in real-time and without interruption and is carried out with end-to-end secure communication. The communication's image and sound quality are ensured at a sufficient level throughout the interview to leave no room for doubt and not allow any restrictions in identification. In this meeting, which will be held by taking the security measures at a sufficient level; since the determination process is considered a critical transaction, the process will be designed in such a way that the customer representative will not allow this transaction to be initiated, approved and completed alone.
The application of the process is initiated before the meeting with a form filled in electronically through the bank's application by the customer. The data collected under this form are subject to pre-interview risk assessment for the applications that are not found sufficient, the process is terminated before it starts. In the remote identification process, only the private personal data of the customer can be used as biometric data, and the explicit consent of the customer is recorded electronically.
Within the scope of identity document verification; by using near field communication, the required match is provided to verify the identity information on the chip of the identity document and to determine the identity of the customer from the identity document. If the necessary matching can be obtained from the customer's face and identity document using near field communication on the chip without contact. If this matching cannot be obtained from this process then the procedure designed by performing a biometric comparison between the photo on the identity card and the customer's face figure.
For the verification of the customer's mobile phone number; In the remote identification process, the centrally generated SMS OTP, valid only for the identification process, is transmitted to the customer.
When the remote identification process is completed, the customer will be able to perform the identification process without being physically present at the bank and benefit from the services offered by the Bank. This process will provide serious convenience for customers who are not able to go to the bank branch for various reasons, as well as those residing abroad.
The banking sector in Turkey, specifically mobile banking applications and internet banking are highly developed areas compared to other countries and due to the technological innovations, active users of this area increasing each passing day. Both the software and hardware investments in remote identification to be made in this field, as well as the investments in the fintech and banking sector, will continue to appear as an area where profitable investments would be made for foreign investors in Turkey, which is a value that continues to grow. It will be inevitable for geography where a young population can adapt, adopt and use such rapid change and transformation to be a pioneer in these innovations in many other areas
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
