Legal Glossary

A bank is a financial institution that, according to Banking Law No. 5411, covers deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks and operates with the permission of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (Bankacılık Düzenleme ve Denetleme Kurulu). A bank to be established in Türkiye is established as a joint-stock company. Except for credit institutions and those authorized by special law, no one may accept deposits or participation funds as a regular business.

The board of directors is the mandatory body that manages and represents a joint-stock company and consists of one or more persons appointed in the articles of association or elected by the general assembly. It is regulated in Articles 359 et seq. of the Turkish Commercial Code (TTK). Members are elected for a maximum of three years. Duties such as the senior management of the company, determining the management organization and establishing the financial order cannot be delegated by the board.

A bond is a long-term debt instrument issued by the issuer as debtor, containing the undertaking that the principal will be repaid to the investor at maturity or in installments. Under the Communiqué on Debt Instruments of the Capital Markets Board (SPK), debt instruments with a maturity of 365 days or more are deemed bonds; shorter-term instruments are regulated under separate names such as financing bills. The bondholder is not a shareholder of the issuer but its creditor; the return is mostly provided by interest or coupon payments.

The burden of proof is the rule that determines which party must bear the adverse consequence when a disputed fact remains uncertain. Unless the law provides otherwise, the party who derives a right in its favor from the legal consequence attached to the fact it asserts is obliged to prove that fact.