Türkiye's SPK raises the professional client asset test to TRY 50 million

Türkiye's Capital Markets Board (SPK) raised the financial assets test for clients who ask to be treated as professional clients to TRY 50 million from TRY 10 million at its meeting on 26 October, the board said in a press statement.

The trading volume test rises to TRY 25 million from TRY 5 million, the statement says. The amounts that make a legal entity a professional client were also reset, and qualified investor conditions set in several SPK communiqués by reference to the professional client rules change with them.

What the new tests are

Under the brokers' communiqué, a retail client can ask to be treated as a professional client if it meets at least two of three conditions: a trading record, a financial assets total and relevant professional experience, the board's guide on investment services sets out. The guide, updated by principle decision i-SPK.37.10 of 26 October, now puts the trading volume at TRY 25 million and the financial assets at TRY 50 million. The trading condition requires that volume, and at least 10 capital market transactions, in every three-month period of the last year, in the guide's wording.

For legal entities, the same decision sets total assets at TRY 2.5 billion, annual net revenue at TRY 4.5 billion and equity at TRY 250 million. The previous figures, set in a decision published on 19 December 2025, were TRY 500 million of assets, TRY 1 billion of revenue and TRY 50 million of equity, alongside the TRY 5 million trading volume and TRY 10 million of financial assets for individuals, the guide shows.

The guide also states that clients who meet only the financial assets condition count as qualified investors under the board's rules, so meeting the TRY 50 million financial assets test alone makes a client a qualified investor. The higher amounts are five times the December figures for individuals and between four and a half and five times for legal entities, a Newsdesk calculation.

No protection for existing status

The December decision had protected clients who had already become professional clients or qualified investors under the earlier amounts. The 26 October decision repeals that protection. Clients who gained the status under the earlier figures, including investors in real estate and venture capital fund units, must first show their investment firm in writing or electronically that they meet the new conditions, the guide says. If they do not, clients holding instruments that only qualified investors can trade may give only sell orders in those instruments.

The decision also ends an exception for qualified investors buying units of real estate investment funds and venture capital investment funds, which the December decision had left on the older amounts. Those investors are now subject to the same amounts as qualified investors in general, the SPK statement says.

The financial news service ForInvest reported the change on 26 October as a fivefold rise in the qualified investor conditions.

Who has to act

Investment firms carry out the checks. The board's rules already require investment firms to ask for and keep the documents that prove a client's professional status, and to collect supporting documents for qualified investor declarations as well as the client's statement, the guide says; electronic means may be used for both.

The change comes as the board deals with funds placed in liquidation, which led to a dedicated liquidation bill and planned capital market crime rules, as EM Governance Review's Türkiye briefing set out on 28 October. Türkiye's anti-money laundering framework is under enhanced follow-up by the FATF, as reported on 23 October.

The SPK statement does not give a transition period for existing clients or say how many clients currently hold professional or qualified investor status.