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What is Open Banking
Open Banking is a system for securely sharing financial data with third party service providers. This system aims to provide users with easier access to banking and financial services and better service.
For example, you can access your accounts in other banks, check your financial data, manage different financial services on a single platform, and make more efficient financial decisions by considering your Open Banking accounts from your Kuveyt Türk Mobile application.
What is Payment Services Data Sharing Services (ÖHVPS)?
In Türkiye, Open Banking licenses and operating permits are issued through the CBRT, while the technical infrastructure of the system is provided by the Interbank Card Center (BKM). Institutions and organizations wishing to be included in the system are required to complete their Open Banking certifications through the BKM's GATE server while carrying out legal processes, activity permits and audit processes with the CBRT.
While Open Banking means sharing financial data with third parties in a secure environment, the answer to the question “Which transactions can be performed with Open Banking?” is determined by Payment Services Data Sharing Services (ÖHVPS).
The ÖHVPS includes two core services defined under the Open Banking cluster.
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Payment Initiation Service: Payment order initiation service provided at the request of the payment service user in relation to a payment account with another payment service provider. [Law 6493, Article 12, first paragraph, subparagraph (f)]
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Account Information Service: The service of making consolidated information about one or more payment accounts of the payment service user with payment service providers available on online platforms, provided that the consent of the payment service user has been obtained. [Law 6493, Article 12, first paragraph, subparagraph (g)]
What are BKM Open Banking Certifications?
There are two types of Payment Service Providers within the scope of payment services data sharing services:
i. Account Information Service Provider (AISP)
ii. Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP)
Payment Service Providers that offer one or both of these services with the necessary authorizations are referred to as Authorized Payment Service Providers (APPs) within the scope of ÖHVPS services, and payment service providers that hold payment accounts are referred to as Account Service Providers (ASPs).
Therefore, Open Banking certifications at BKM are two separate processes as HHS certification and YÖS certification:
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HHS Certification: All institutions holding payment accounts are required to complete HHS certifications by certain dates. Pursuant to the regulations, banks, electronic money institutions, payment institutions and Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilatı AŞ will be HHS.
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YÖS Certification: Pursuant to the regulations, banks, electronic money institutions and payment institutions that have Article 12, subparagraph (f) or (g)
in their operating licenses with the CBRT are required to complete their YÖS certification.
BKM publishes the current dates when the certifications must be completed as compliance dates.
How does open banking work? What are the advantages?
According to the provisions of the CBRT Regulation and Communiqué, the basic principles for the ÖHVPS can be summarized as follows:
• HHS is obliged to make payment services data sharing services available to the AISP and the PISP through the BKM Gate (GATE).
• In the payment initiation service, the parties of the open communication service are PISP and AISP.
• In the account information service, the parties of the open communication service are AISP and HHS.
• Connections between the HHS, the GATE and the PISP/AISP are provided securely from end to end.
• Within the scope of the ÖHVPS, it is essential that the customer is subject to Strong Authentication (GKD) at HHS.
Open Banking offers many advantages for users. Some of them are as follows:
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Transparency and Security: Users' financial data is shared with their full consent and their privacy rights are protected.
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Ease: It provides the opportunity to manage different bank accounts on a single platform.
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Productivity: It speeds up financial transactions and provides lower cost services.
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Innovation: It improves the user experience thanks to APIs developed by third-party Fintech companies and banks.
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Standardization: Data sharing has been standardized with the ÖHVPS API Principles and Rules determined by BKM by removing the old methods that allowed different banks to share data in different ways.
Open Banking services are easily accessible via your bank, e-money / payment institution's mobile or internet menu. The Open Banking service, which offers many advantages, is currently offered free of charge. In addition, efforts are underway at the BKM to charge for the service offered.
Open Banking Current Status and BKM Version Transitions
While the work on Open Banking in Türkiye continues at a rapid pace, the most current topics are:
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It can be summarised as 28 March 2025 Amendments to the Regulation published in the Official Gazette on Friday,
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Revised dates for completion of Open Banking certifications for institutions subject to the obligation,
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New version transition to ÖHPVS 2.0 announced at BKM.
With the amendments to the Regulation and Communiqué published in the Official Gazette on March 28;
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Payment service providers that do not provide their customers with direct online access to their payment accounts are no longer obliged to connect to BKM GATE within the scope of Open Banking,
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Within the scope of Open Banking, the scope of integration and certification obligation to BKM GATE infrastructure has been narrowed. Scope:
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It is limited to CBRT FAST participants and
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non-FAST participant institutions ranked among the top 10 institutions in terms of payment volume (to be calculated annually).
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In addition to these changes, which are generally interpreted as narrowing the scope of Open Banking in the sector, BKM also updated the certification dates. Although the dates of the BKM's announcement are detailed with different breakdowns, in general, the following important information was included in the statement:
“IMPORTANT INFORMATION: HHSs with a transition obligation on December 31, 2025 must complete the certification process and go into production by December 31, 2025 at the latest if they reach Version 2.0.0 certification after August 1, 2025.”
Another important issue is the announcement of the compliance dates for ÖHVPS version 2.0, which is kept as a draft by the BKM. According to the announced dates, the ÖHVPS 2.0 version, which is still kept as a “Draft Version”, will be completed in the 2nd half of this year and certifications will start after August. While ÖHVPS 2.0 introduces extensive new features such as “Future payment order” and “Regular payment order”, the most notable change is that card information from other banks can now be shared just like account information. In this way, just like account information, end users will be able to see their card information from all banks on a single application and have a more holistic financial perspective. While the draft version is subject to change or update, the general scope is summarized under these three main headings.
With these developments, which are eagerly awaited as very important changes in the sector, we can say that we can expect very active days with the start of v2.0 transitions as of the second half of this year.
As Architecht, we support many organizations in open banking certification with our Airapi Open Banking and API Management Platform product.
If you want to examine Airapi Open Banking and API Management Platform in detail, you can visit our product page.
