Seeking for solutions to bounced cheque: example of Turkey

Abstract

The cheque, which has been replaced by money order and credit card in many countries, still remains as an important payment instrument in Turkey. Several sanctions are imposed for the use of bounced cheque in all legal systems in order to increase the credibility of cheque. In the early years of the Turkish Republic, there were no special sanctions imposed for the use of bounced cheque. Such lack of legal sanction for drawing bounced cheque led to an increase in the number of bounced cheque. The said abuse gave cause for certain sanctions on drawing bounced cheque. Considering bounced cheque fraud within the framework of Turkish Criminal Code did not however constitute a proper legal solution for post-dated cheque in particular. As such, Turkish lawmaker had the sole opportunity to define a new crime named "drawing bounced cheque" including imprisonment in the relevant code regulating cheque related issues. But the increase in the number of bounced cheque due to the economic crisis in the nineties made it necessary to find out a new solution. Accordingly, the Turkish lawmaker abandoned imprisonment and carried out a new regulation based on the acquis communautaire that led to the employment of the principle stated as "economic punishment for economic crime". Since 2016, the QR-code cheque is also employed in order to prevent drawing of bounced cheque. This study aims to review the aforementioned measures with regard to bounced cheque and analyze the impacts of the QR-code cheque.