Turkey Introduces Mandatory Turkish-English Public Disclosures for Listed Companies. That was a specific need and finally the Turkish Government found a solution.
Introduction
It should be underlined at the beginning that the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye (CMB), or Sermaye Piyasası Kurulu (SPK) in Turkish, serves as Türkiye’s primary authority for regulating and overseeing capital-market activities. CMB made a significant decision to manage the capital markets in Turkey through the proper selection of English. The Capital Market Board of Türkiye published a decision dated 13 August 2026 and numbered 49/1489, introducing a new bilingual disclosure requirement for publicly traded companies.
The available article will give a brief overview of the updated rules by CMB regarding the simultaneous usage of English and Turkish versions.
You can check out how the Turkish capital markets function by taking a look at our Practice Area: Capital Markets
The Role of Capital Markets Board of Türkiye
The Capital Markets Board of Türkiye is the principal regulatory and supervisory authority responsible for Türkiye’s capital markets. Its primary objective is to ensure that capital markets operate in a fair, efficient, transparent, competitive and stable manner while safeguarding the rights and interests of investors. In that connection, the CMB’s principal functions include:
Regulation: Issuing secondary legislation, communiqués, principles and regulatory decisions governing capital-market institutions, instruments and activities.
Approval of Prospectuses and Issuance Documents: Reviewing and approving prospectuses and other issuance documents relating to public offerings and capital-market instruments.
Authorisation: Granting the licences and approvals required for companies, institutions and professionals to conduct regulated capital-market activities.
Market Surveillance: Monitoring capital-market transactions and developments to identify market abuse, insider dealing, manipulation, misleading disclosures and other irregularities.
Supervision and Inspection: Examining issuers, publicly traded companies, investment firms, portfolio-management companies, collective investment schemes and other regulated market participants for compliance with capital-markets legislation.
Imposition of Measures and Sanctions: Applying administrative measures and sanctions where violations are identified, including administrative fines, trading restrictions and other protective or corrective measures permitted by law.
Financial Reporting and Independent Audit Standards: Establishing and enforcing the principles applicable to financial reporting, public disclosure and independent auditing in the capital markets.
Dispute Resolution: Operating or supporting mechanisms for resolving certain disputes arising between investors and capital-market institutions, without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the competent courts and other authorised bodies.
Licensing Activities: Determining professional qualification requirements and overseeing the licensing framework applicable to persons.
For more information you can reach out CBM official website here:
What is the news?
Within the context of its mission on Imposition of Measures and Sanctions, Capital Market Board of Türkiye issued a decision dated 13 August 2026 and numbered 49/1489, introducing a new bilingual disclosure requirement for publicly traded companies.
Effective from 1 October 2026:
- Publicly traded companies [halka açık şirketler in Turkish] are required to publish their material event disclosures simultaneously in Turkish and English.
- English and Turkish versions must be disclosed in a manner that ensures ensuring substantive consistency between both versions;
- The English version is required to contain a disclaimer stating that the Turkish disclosure will prevail in the event of any discrepancy or interpretative doubt.
Scope
The aforementioned requirement initially applies only to publicly traded companies classified within the context of “first group” under the CMB’s corporate governance regulations. Despite the fact that other publicly traded companies are currently outside the scope of the requirement, they need to closely monitor the implementation of the new regime for the way forward.
What Should Listed Companies Do Before 1 October 2026?
Companies falling within the scope of the new requirement should review their existing public-disclosure procedures before the 1 October 2026 effective date. In particular, they should establish an internal process for preparing Turkish and English versions simultaneously, ensure substantive consistency between both texts, introduce appropriate translation and legal-review controls, and include the required disclaimer confirming that the Turkish version will prevail in the event of any discrepancy.
Even listed companies that are not currently within the first-group classification should closely monitor the implementation of the new regime, as bilingual disclosure practices may become increasingly relevant across Türkiye’s capital markets.
Conclusion
It is worth reiterating in the final analysis that Türkiye introduces mandatory Turkish-English public disclosures for specified companies. English has become indispensable in today’s interconnected capital markets, particularly for ensuring that international investors have timely and equal access to material information. The concerned companies should complete their preparations by 1 October 2026.
Based on this background, the above-mentioned decision requiring simultaneous Turkish and English disclosures reflects two significant turning point:
-first is the growing participation of foreign investors in Türkiye’s capital markets
-and the second is the country’s objective of attracting further international investment.
By reducing language barriers and improving the accessibility and comparability of corporate disclosures through two-sided language integration, it is expected to strengthen market transparency, enhance investor confidence and support the deeper integration of Turkish capital markets into the global financial system.
