Turkey is unlikely to be put back on the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list as the watchdog’s fifth-round mutual evaluation moves toward its final stages, former Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) head Osman Dereli told the Ekonomim news website.
Dereli said impressions from an onsite visit in November 2025 were positive and that Turkey would avoid renewed listing if no major deficiencies are identified. FATF is expected to take up Turkey’s case at a plenary meeting in June 2026.
A FATF team visited Turkey in November 2025, more than a year after the country was removed from the grey list in June 2024 following progress in addressing deficiencies related to money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the FATF delegation held meetings from November 24 to 28 with MASAK, banks, payment service providers and other institutions. The review focused on financial intelligence, investigation and prosecution processes and compliance systems at financial institutions.
In the weeks leading up to the visit, Turkish authorities launched multiple investigations into alleged money laundering and suspended or seized the operations of dozens of companies.
According to central bank announcements published in the Official Gazette, at least 10 payment companies, including the prominent brand Papara, had their licenses suspended or revoked, some over alleged illegal transactions.
The central bank revoked Papara’s operating license in October 2025 following an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal betting activities that became public in May. The probe, led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, accused the suspects of running a criminal network involved in illegal gambling, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization.
Prosecutors said Papara’s systems were used to facilitate financial transactions linked to illegal betting operations. The probe led to the arrest of 11 people, including the company’s founder and chief executive officer, Ahmet Faruk Karslı. Assets belonging to 10 companies, including Papara Holding A.Ş., were seized, with their total value estimated at around 5 billion lira (about $155 million at the time), according to then-interior minister Ali Yerlikaya.
In a similar operation in March 2025, an İstanbul court ordered the arrest of 21 people out of 52 detained as part of an investigation into illegal betting operations. Among those arrested was businessman Erkan Kork, the owner of Flash TV, Pozitifbank and the PayFix digital payment service, which were among 23 companies seized in the operation.
Ramazan Başak, a former deputy head of MASAK, said the recent investigations into banks, payment firms and holding companies were necessary but delayed.
“The current state of the sector stems from three key errors: insufficient attention to company ownership during establishment, ineffective audits and failure to take timely and adequate action,” Başak said.
Turkey was placed on the FATF’s list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in October 2021 because of deficiencies in supervision and enforcement in sectors vulnerable to money laundering. It was removed from the list on June 28, 2024, after FATF said it had completed its action plan.
Dereli outlined Turkey’s progress between the fourth round process and the current fifth round evaluation. In the fourth round evaluation Turkey was found compliant with 11 of 40 technical recommendations, largely compliant with 17, partially compliant with 10 and noncompliant with two. Following legislative and operational reforms, the latest followup assessment found 14 recommendations compliant, 25 largely compliant and only one partially compliant, with none remaining noncompliant.
Under FATF methodology, the review looks not only at technical compliance with the rules but also at effectiveness, meaning whether the system works in practice.