13,000 people join ‘millionaires’ club in Turkey

ANKARA

The number of deposit holders with at least one million Turkish Liras and more in their bank accounts increased by 12,777 in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the end of 2018 to reach a total of 192,903, state-run Anadolu Agency has calculated based on data from the country’s banking regulator BDDK.

Those 192,000 people collectively have 1.2 trillion liras (some $199 billion) in their bank accounts, up from 1.1 trillion liras they parked in the country’s lenders at the end of last year.

The “millionaires” have on average 6.25 million liras in deposit accounts, according to the data.

The number of resident millionaires increased by 11,200 in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the end of 2018 to 173,000 while the value of their combined deposits at banks stood at 1.12 trillion liras.

Of the 1.12 trillion, 443 billion liras were kept in lira accounts while 662 billion liras were foreign exchange deposits with banks. They also kept another 7.2 billion liras in precious stones deposit accounts.

Data also showed that the number of resident millionaires was 161,800 at the end of last year with a combined deposits worth of 1.02 trillion liras.

According to the BDDK figures, there were a total of 19,903 non-resident account holders at the end of the first quarter, a 1,577 increase from the end of last year. Non-residents had 93 billion liras at their accounts with local banks.

Non-residents kept 9.3 billion of this total amount in lira deposit accounts, 83.4 billion liras in foreign exchange deposit accounts and 390 million liras in precious stones deposit accounts.

Non-resident deposit holders have 7.3 million liras on average in their accounts.

The Turkish banking sector’s net profit totaled some 12.35 billion liras ($2.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2019, the watchdog reported last month.

According to the BDDK, total assets of the sector rose by 22.6 percent on a yearly basis.

Amounting to some 2.52 trillion liras, loans — the biggest sub-category of assets — surged 14.6 percent year-on-year.         

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.21 trillion liras in the three-month period, marking an annual hike of 24.2 percent.