Amendments in April

• Principle Decision on the Communiqué on Principles Regarding Portfolio Management Companies and Their Activities (i-SPK 55.2)

Pursuant to the Turkish Capital Markets Board’s ("the Board" or "CMB") decision dated 6 April 2023, the obligation of portfolio management companies to register before the relevant trade registry and be announced in the Turkish Trade Registry Gazette within 10 business days following the notification of the Board's permission to establish a liaison office shall be deemed to have been fulfilled by announcing the Board's permission on the websites of the portfolio management companies and on the Public Disclosure Platform (Kamuyu Aydınlatma Platformu).

• Amendments on the Mandatory Reserves Communiqué 

As per the Article 10/C added to the Mandatory Reserves Communiqué, 5 points will be added to the reserve requirement rate for foreign currency obligations for all maturities in banks that have an allocation of Turkish Lira deposits/participation funds below 60 percent. For banks whose allocation of Turkish Lira deposits/participation funds cannot be calculated, the relevant procedures and principles determined by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey will apply.

• Precedent on the Crowdfunding Communiqué (i-SPK 35/A.2.3)

Pursuant to the Board’s decision dated 13 April 2023, the Board has decided to clarify the implementation of certain conditions required for platforms stipulated under Article 5 of the Crowdfunding Communiqué No. III.35/A.2. As such, it was decided that the platforms may outsource the following services from development and investment banks, participation banks and intermediary institutions with broad authority, which have established their own internal control and risk management systems and accounting and operation units: “to establish an internal control and risk management system and an accounting and operation unit", “to fulfill the requirements of the Board to establish and operate the information systems infrastructure stipulated for intermediary institutions with limited authority under the Board's information systems management regulations" and “to employ a sufficient number of personnel in the responsible unit to carry out actions and transactions in relation to documents, recording and accounting”. In addition, capital market institutions who plan to provide such services to crowdfunding platforms were reminded that it is their responsibility to ensure that such services are provided in a manner that does not harm the performance of their core activities, i.e. investment services and activities.

• Changes to BIST Participation Indices 

Borsa Istanbul A.Ş. ("BIST" or "Borsa Istanbul") amended the shares to be included in BIST Participation All, BIST Participation 100, BIST Participation 50, BIST Participation 30, BIST Participation Sustainability and BIST Participation Dividend Indices for the period between 1 May 2023 – 30 September 2024. The said changes were announced on the BIST website.

Amendments in May

• Communiqué on the Companies whose Shares will be Traded on the Venture Capital Market

Board introduced the “Communiqué on the Companies Whose Shares will be Traded on the Venture Capital Market” regarding the issuance and sale of shares of private companies to qualified investors without a public offering to be traded on the newly established Venture Capital Market under BIST, with immediate effect upon being published in the Official Gazette on 18 May 2018. The Communiqué regulates the general principles regarding the sale of shares of private companies to qualified investors through capital increase without public offering, the obligations of the companies after the issue, the rules on financial reporting, independent audits and material events disclosures, and exemptions. For more information about this subject you may refer to our detailed client alert published here. 

• Changes to BIST SME Industrial Index

Borsa Istanbul amended the shares to be included in the BIST SME Industry Index for the period between 1 June 2023 – 31 May 2024. The said changes were announced on the BIST website. 

• Changes in BIST Equity Market Special Transaction Notification Limits

Borsa Istanbul updated the trading volume limits for special transaction notifications in the Equity Market, effective as of 10 July 2023. These changes were announced on the BIST website.

• Changes in Derivatives Market

Borsa Istanbul amended the Market Making Program of the Derivatives Market. Accordingly, it was decided to update grouping in relation to the rights and obligations, to determine the revenue sharing rate for equity futures contracts as 30%, and to exclude special transaction notifications in the calculation of revenue sharing amounts. These changes are effective as of 3 July 2023 and were announced on the BIST website.

Amendments in June

• Equity Market Categorization in Markets

As a result of the evaluation on the categorization of the shares in the markets, BIST determined the shares to be traded in the Star Market, Main Market and Sub-Market as of 3 July 2023 and announced the lists on its website.

• Periodic Changes to BIST Stock Indices

BIST announced the changes in BIST 100, BIST 50, BIST 30, BIST Liquid Banks, BIST Liquid 10 Ex Banks and BIST Sustainability and BIST Sustainability 25 Indices for the third quarter of 2023 on its website.

• Periodic Changes to the BIST-KYD Corporate Eurobond Indices

BIST completed the studies on Eurobonds regarding BIST-KYD Corporate Eurobond Indices for the third quarter of the year 2023 and determined that the same lists will continue to be used.

• Periodic Changes to the BIST-KYD Fund Eurobond Indices 

BIST completed the studies on Eurobonds regarding BIST-KYD Fund Eurobond Indices for the third quarter of the year 2023 and announced the lists of included/excluded funds and lists of constituents in BIST-KYD Fixed Income Fund Index and BIST-KYD Equity Fund Index on its website. 

• CMB 2022 Activity Report

The Board published the CMB's annual report for 2022. The report includes an assessment of the activities carried out by the CMB in 2022, the legislative amendments made and the capital markets in Turkey, as well as information on the ongoing legislative amendments. You may access the relevant report here.