Turkish Capital Markets Board (SPK): lists and sanctions

Short answer: The Turkish Capital Markets Board (Sermaye Piyasası Kurulu, SPK; CMB on its English site) regulates Turkey's capital markets under Capital Markets Law No. 6362: it approves offerings, licenses firms, and can fine, ban and block websites. To check a firm, use the permit search and institution lists on spk.gov.tr; to check sanctions, use its bulletins and administrative sanctions database, both read on 6 November 2026. Being listed is not an endorsement.

Foreign compliance staff and fintech teams usually need one of three answers: is this firm authorized, has it been sanctioned, and which rule applies. The English site answers few of those, because the working lists and bulletins sit on the Turkish site.

This guide maps that site for readers without Turkish. It recommends no firm, is not legal advice and names no sanctioned person or firm. Fincode is a software company and does not provide investment services.

What is the Turkish Capital Markets Board?

The Board is Turkey's independent capital markets regulator, with its powers set by Capital Markets Law No. 6362.

SPK's own page dates it to Law No. 2499 of 28 July 1981 and to a decision of 13 January 1982 that appointed its first board. Article 117 of Law 6362 gives it public legal personality and administrative and financial autonomy, and bars anyone from instructing it on decisions. Its decision body has seven members, including a president and a vice president (Article 118), and is meant to meet at least once every two weeks (Article 123). Article 117 puts its seat in Istanbul, but SPK's own page says the seat stays in Ankara until the move is complete, and Bulletin 2026/78 of 30 October 2026 still prints Ankara as headquarters with an Istanbul representative office.

What is Capital Markets Law No. 6362?

Capital Markets Law No. 6362, adopted on 6 December 2012 and published in the Official Gazette on 30 December 2012 (issue 28513), is the framework statute for issuers, investment firms, exchanges and the Board.

Article 109 sets two to five years in prison and a judicial fine of 5,000 to 10,000 days for unauthorized capital markets activity. Article 99/A of Capital Markets Law No. 6362 treats activity by foreign crypto-asset platforms directed at Turkish residents as unauthorized; the wider rules are in is crypto legal in Turkey. cmb.gov.tr hosts an English text that lists amendments through Law No. 7518 of 2024 but states no legal status of its own, so use the Turkish consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr as the reference.

Two websites: cmb.gov.tr and spk.gov.tr

cmb.gov.tr is the English shop window and spk.gov.tr is where the working lists, permits and bulletins live.

Treat the English page General Information for Foreign Investors as orientation. It is undated, says foreign portfolio investors face no restrictions, citing Decree No. 32 of August 1989, says they should use a Turkish intermediary, and still refers to the ISE Derivative Market, a name from the Istanbul Stock Exchange era; Borsa Istanbul's derivatives market is now VİOP, whose futures and options are leveraged, so losses can exceed the margin deposited. Account steps are in how to buy Turkish stocks.

How to check whether a firm is authorized

Search SPK's permit tables and institution lists by the firm's exact legal name, then confirm that the permit covers the service on offer.

1. Get the legal name. Take it from the contract or offer, not from an app or brand name.
2. Brokers and banks. In the Institutions menu's broker section, Current Activity Permits (Mevcut Faaliyet İzinleri) opens a search by name, status and permit type that shows each broker's status, permit documents and activity permits. Banks have a separate page.
3. Other firms. The Institutions menu (Kurumlar) has separate entries for brokers, banks, funds, investment trusts, portfolio managers, real estate valuers, independent auditors, custody institutions, rating agencies, other valuers and crypto asset service providers.
4. Match the contact details. The broker section's contact card links to the Turkish Capital Markets Association's disclosure pages, so compare those details with the website and phone number you were given.
5. Not found? Do not send money. Ask SPK in writing and take advice.

SPK's page on unauthorized activity, read on 6 November 2026, publishes no list of unauthorized firms, so a name missing from warnings proves nothing. The reverse also holds: being listed is not an endorsement or a view on quality, and SPK said on 5 August 2024 that appearing on its list of operating crypto platforms does not mean authorization.

Software suppliers are not on these lists unless they also hold a permit, which is why a connector project, such as Fincode's Turkish exchange connectors, should state plainly who holds which license.

Checking permits from software

SPK also publishes web services, catalogued at ws.spk.gov.tr (opens in a new tab) and linked from its sanctions database, covering broker and bank permits, portfolio managers, public companies, auditors, fines and trading bans. Its OpenAPI file declares no key, terms of use or rate limits (none was needed on 6 November 2026), so ask SPK before relying on it in production.

import json
import urllib.request

BASE = "https://ws.spk.gov.tr/AKBankaFaaliyet/api/"

def fetch(name):
    req = urllib.request.Request(BASE + name, headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"})
    try:
        with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=60) as resp:
            rows = json.load(resp)
    except OSError as err:  # HTTP errors, timeouts, no connection
        raise SystemExit(f"{name}: {err}")
    except ValueError:
        raise SystemExit(f"{name}: response is not JSON")
    if not isinstance(rows, list):
        raise SystemExit(f"{name}: expected a list, got {type(rows).__name__}")
    return rows

for name in ("AraciKurumListe", "BankaListe", "FaaliyetIzniTuru"):
    rows = fetch(name)
    print(name, len(rows), list(rows[0]) if rows else "no rows")

Output on 6 November 2026, counts and field names only:

AraciKurumListe 70 ['id', 'unvani']
BankaListe 57 ['id', 'unvani']
FaaliyetIzniTuru 59 ['id', 'aciklama']

How to read the SPK bulletin

The bulletin (SPK Bülteni) is the Turkish-only record of Board decisions, found by year and number, and its lettered sections change order from issue to issue.

It is sometimes called weekly, but SPK's 2026 list shows no fixed day: issue 2026/69 is dated 7 October, 2026/74 and 2026/75 both 26 October, and 2026/78, still the newest on 6 November 2026, 30 October.

Letters are not stable: in 2026/78, section A is announcements and principle decisions. Decisions are cited by date and number, so decision 76/1918 of 27 October 2026 appeared in Bulletin 2026/78. To find one, open the issues dated after the decision and search each PDF for the number. A machine translation is fine for orientation, but quote the Turkish.

Turkey Capital Markets Board sanctions list: where to look

There is no single list to copy: fines, trading bans and measures appear in bulletins and in SPK's administrative sanctions database.

The database at idariyaptirimlar.spk.gov.tr has tabs for administrative fines, trading bans and other measures, with filters by person, company, MKK registry number, share code and year. Each fine record shows the decision number and date, the violation, the legal basis and lawsuit status.

Read this as a snapshot, not a verdict. The site's legal note says fines can be challenged in administrative court within 60 days, that the table shows lawsuits notified to the Board and court decisions, and that natural persons' names are periodically masked or removed once the purpose of processing has passed, citing Article 4 of data protection Law No. 6698. Anyone screening a counterparty should record the decision number and read date, recheck the court stage and avoid building a permanent copy. SPK's web service carries the same data: /IdariYaptirimlar/api/IdariParaCezalari/2026 returned 182 fine records that day, matching the site. Third-party screening datasets also copy the trading-ban listing, so check any hit against the source decision.

• Fine ranges. For 2026, SPK Bulletin 2025/68 sets TRY 445,243.49 to TRY 5,565,516.37 under Article 103(1) and up to TRY 11,141,376.25 under Article 104. Where a benefit was gained, the fine cannot be less than twice that benefit, and Article 103 lets the Board fine companies up to the higher of 1% of gross sales or 20% of pre-tax profit.
• Website blocks. Under Article 99(3) the Board orders content removal or access blocking when unauthorized activity runs online, and sends the order to the Association of Access Providers to enforce. Bulletin 2026/67 records such a decision in section B.

How to complain, and what the SPK does not supervise

A complaint to SPK gets a compliance review, not compensation, and banks and payment firms have their own regulators.

SPK's complaint page, dated 16 January 2022 so check it before relying on it, asks for transaction dates, the instrument, the firm and the right you believe was breached, with documents where available. It treats these as applications under Laws No. 4982 and 3071 but names no filing channel. SPK's information request page (opens in a new tab), read on 6 November 2026, links complaints within SPK's remit to CİMER, the Presidency's communication center, and sends reports of manipulation or insider trading on the exchange to Borsa Istanbul. The footer also lists a registered electronic mail (KEP) address.

A bank offering shares or funds falls under SPK rules for that activity (Article 39) while staying under BDDK as a bank. Fund products are covered in Turkish mutual funds and TEFAS.

Frequently asked questions

Are SPK and CMB the same body?

Yes. SPK is the Turkish abbreviation of Sermaye Piyasası Kurulu, and CMB is the abbreviation its English site uses for the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye.

Does the Turkish Capital Markets Board publish a sanctions list?

It publishes decisions in its bulletins and runs a searchable administrative sanctions database for fines, trading bans and measures. Names of natural persons can be masked or removed over time, so treat any copy as out of date.

Is the SPK bulletin available in English?

None was found on 6 November 2026. Bulletins are published in Turkish on spk.gov.tr, and the English site cmb.gov.tr carries selected legislation and news.

How do I verify a Turkish broker?

Use the Activity Permits search on spk.gov.tr with the firm's exact legal name, check the permit types, then compare the contact details with the ones you were given.

Does the SPK compensate investors?

No. SPK reviews compliance and does not decide compensation. Exchange disputes go to Borsa Istanbul, other claims to the association's arbitration panel or the courts, and firm failures to the Investor Compensation Center.

Sources

• Capital Markets Law No. 6362, consolidated text (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• CMB: Capital Market Legislation, English texts (opens in a new tab)
• CMB: General Information for Foreign Investors (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Formation of the Capital Markets Board (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Broker activity permits search (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Brokers section, Institutions menu (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Unauthorized capital markets activities (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: 2026 bulletins list (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK Bulletin 2026/67, 30 September 2026: sections and Article 99/3 decision (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK Bulletin 2026/78, 30 October 2026: decision 76/1918 (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK Bulletin 2025/68, 31 December 2025: revalued 2026 amounts (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Administrative sanctions database (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Web services catalogue (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Where and how to complain, 16 January 2022 (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)
• SPK: Announcement on crypto-asset service providers, 5 August 2024 (Turkish) (opens in a new tab)

This guide is general information, not investment, legal or tax advice. Amounts, rates and rules in Turkey change often: check the date given for each figure and the official source before you rely on it, and ask a licensed adviser about your own situation. Sources, checks and corrections: see the editorial policy.