Turkey seeks to grant regulators the power to freeze bank and virtual asset accounts

The Turkish government is seeking to grant the Financial Crimes Investigation Board the authority to freeze and restrict bank and virtual asset (cryptocurrency) accounts. This measure is part of a regulatory tightening to prevent money laundering and financial crimes and will be included in a bill to be submitted to parliament.

On the 29th (local time), Bloomberg reported that Turkey is preparing a plan to grant the Financial Crimes Investigation Board the authority to directly freeze accounts at banks, payment firms, electronic money companies and virtual asset exchanges. This authority would enable an immediate response to financial crimes by blocking accounts suspected of illegal use and imposing transaction limits.

The new regulatory proposal is being designed to meet the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and will be included in the 11th bill to be submitted to parliament. If the bill passes, the Financial Crimes Investigation Board would be able to put accounts and wallet addresses involved in crimes on a blacklist to block transactions.

According to officials, the regulation targets 'rented accounts' that criminals use for illegal gambling and scams. These criminals pay individual account holders to borrow their accounts and have been using them to carry out money laundering.