COMMUNIQUE ON PROCEDURES AND PRINCIPLES FOR FEES TO BE OBTAINED FROM COMMERCIAL CUSTOMERS BY BANKS (2020/4) PUBLISHED. 11 February 2020

'With the communique published; the types and qualities, maximum amount or rates and the procedures and principles of the fees that will be charged for the products or services offered in the transactions to be carried out by the commercial customers of the banks have been determined.

Featured arrangements are stated below.

1. The fees that banks shall charge to commercial customers in return for the products and services they offer within the scope of commercial loans, foreign trade, cash management and payment systems are specified in the Annex of the Communiqué.

You may access the ‘Annex’ by clicking the link below:
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2020/02/
20200210-10.htm

Banks will be able to freely determine the charges of those which are not restricted from the charge items in the Annex.

Except for the fees included in the Annex, no fee shall be charged under the other names for the products or services to be offered under these categories in terms of their quality; however, the amounts to be paid to third parties shall be reflected exactly to the commercial customer.

2. In case of early payment or closure of the commercial loan, it is obligatory to make a discount on all interest and other cost elements not accrued by the banks. The bank shall be able to request 'early payment fee' from the commercial customer.

If an early payment request is made for the entire loan, the early payment fee (the amount calculated by making the necessary interest discount and paid early to the bank by the commercial customers) shall not exceed 1% for loans whose remaining maturity does not exceed 24 months, and 2% for loans whose remaining maturity exceeds 24 months.

3. Banks shall categorize their 'loan allocation' and 'lending' fees as two separate sub-items.

The 'loan allocation fee' shall not exceed 25 per ten thousand of the loan allocated and the 'loan lending fee' shall not exceed 1 percent of the loan granted.

4. Fees Which Shall Be Paid Within The Scope Of Collateral

The fees that shall be charged for the pledge and mortgage facilities and appraisal transactions for movable and immovable properties to be made within the period from the allocation of commercial credit to the closure, shall not exceed the amount paid by the banks to third parties, and if the service is offered within the bank, shall not exceed the ‘reasonable price of the service’.

5. Intermediation Services of the Bank

No fee shall be charged from the commercial customer who pays for the intermediary transactions of third parties' invoices and similar collections. Banks may request fees from the third parties whose collections are made in such transactions.

6. Transactions with Commercial Cards

Limit excess fee shall not be charged from commercial credit cards.

In commercial credit cards, no fees shall be charged for deferment, installment, deadline extension and similar services.

Annual membership fee shall not be charged for commercial debit cards and virtual credit cards.

Banks are obliged to offer a commercial credit card type that they do not charge any fee under the annual membership fee and similar name, and in the event that this application is rejected by the bank, a commercial credit card with an annual membership fee cannot be issued based on this application.

7. Limitations Of Money Transfer Fees

Fees in EFT transactions; an upper limit has been determined to be applied if the transaction amount is 1,000 TL or less. The upper limit shall be 1TL for transactions made via mobile banking and internet banking and regular payments, 2TL for ATM transactions and 5TL for transactions with other channels.

These upper limits shall be applied with 50% increment in EFT transactions determined as "late transactions" in contracts between the bank and the commercial customer.

Fees in Money Order transactions; fees related to these transactions shall be applied at the rate of half of the fees in EFT transactions with the same classification.

In money transfer transactions, in cases where a refund is required due to the customer's error, no fee will be charged to the customer, except for the amounts paid to third parties.

8. Fee Change Notification

Banks shall notify the commercial customers at least 2 business days in advance, in writing, via the permanent data keeper or via the registered phone in order to increase the fees they apply. The increase cannot be applied to the previous period.

9. The provisions of the Communiqué will come into force on 01.03.2020 and will also be applied to the transactions to be performed after the effective date within the scope of the contracts established before this date.