PayPal license rejected as it failed to comply with Turkish regulations: Regulator

“We saw that the company did not make any preparations to comply with the 23rd article of the related law and 16th article of the complementary notice, which require banking institutions to carry their primary and secondary systems into Turkey. After a number of written communications and meetings with the company, the requirements were repeatedly explained, but the company representatives told us they could not carry their information systems and their backups in line with their global corporate policy, although it was possible technically to do this,” said Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) President Mehmet Ali Akben, as quoted by Anadolu Agency on June 2.

The company was told that they could enter the Turkish market upon a more minimal model, dubbed a “cross border” financial entity, and additional time was offered to make their decision, he noted, adding the watchdog did not however hear any reply. 

“In this vein, the license application of PayPal was rejected,” Akben noted. 

PayPal announced that would stop operations in Turkey, as it could not get the necessary license from local authorities, in a written statement on May 30. 

“As our license applications to local authorities were rejected and the related authority wanted us to stop our operations in Turkey, we need to take this decision,” said the company.

PayPal noted it would continue its efforts to take the required licenses in Turkey. 

Customers in Turkey will not be able to send or receive money through their PayPal accounts as of June 6.