The Law No. 6111 on the Restructuring and Rescheduling of certain Outstanding Public Debts and on Amendments and Revisions to the Law on Social Security and Public Health Insurance and to some other Laws and Governmental Decrees in Force of Law (the “Law No. 6111” or the “Omnibus Law”) (published in the Official Gazette on 25 February 25, 2011 and numbered 27857(bis)) contains clauses affecting the law of economy as part of the amendments and revisions in various laws.

Further to another amendment by the Law No. 6111 the legal barrier prohibiting general managers or deputy general managers of banks from working in any other commercial enterprise has been removed.
It is also understood that through the additions made to Article 35 by the Omnibus Law the BRSA is authorized (i) to determine and fix the subjects on which banks are allowed to procure support services, and (ii) to limit the subjects of support services, or to prohibit all or any such support services, or to require liability insurance coverage in connection therewith, or to make it obligatory to receive and obtain prior permission in connection thereof.

The amended wording of Article 36 imposes liability insurance as a legal obligation on independent audit firms only, and states that the other three types of firms are held liable to take out and maintain liability insurance (i) only if and when demanded so by the banks to whom they serve, or (ii) if and when deemed “necessary” by the BRSA.

Article 73 has been amended in order to remove doubt in the practice of law as to whether confidential information may be given or disclosed to persons or entities authorized by other laws and regulations. Furthermore, the law provision holding banking circles liable and obliged to keep information regarded as banking secrets in strict confidence and not to give or disclose the same to any persons or entities other than the authorities clearly authorized by the applicable laws has also been amended.

Finally, as per the amendments to Article 73/4 of the Banking Law, it is deemed that the obligation of confidentiality does not arise provided that the disclosure of confidential information as to the secrets of banks or their clients both in the course of the exchange of all kinds of information and documents under certain conditions, the underlying rationale for the amendments to the confidentiality obligations of banks and the BRSA is to harmonise Turkish law in light of EC Directives and EU legislation for the sake of the top level protection of secrets and confidential information.

As per an additional article to the Banking Law, a Risk Centre shall be established and founded within the organization of the Banks Association of Turkey in order to “gather and collect risk information and data” relating to clients of crediting institutions and other financial institutions and to ensure the “sharing of such information” both with these entities and institutions and other natural persons or legal entities and with private law legal entities subject to their prior consent. Additionally, operation principles and procedures with respect to the Risk Centre will be determined within one year of the publication of the Omnibus Law and regulated by the Banks Association of Turkey and published in the Official Gazette. The Risk Centre will be subject to the audit and supervision of the BRSA.