Banking sector’s net profit up 70 percent

ANKARA

The Turkish banking industry’s combined net income increased by 69.6 percent in the January-March period from a year ago to 107.3 billion Turkish Liras ($5.5 billion), the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) has said.

Total assets of the banks grew by 10.4 percent - or by 1.5 trillion liras - compared to the end of 2022 to 15.84 trillion liras as of end-March, while loans extended by lenders rose by 12.4 percent in the same period to 8.5 trillion liras.

Banks’ securities portfolio increased by 15.6 percent to 2.74 trillion liras.

Interests collected from loans were 74 percent higher from a year ago to 257 billion liras, with interest income from consumer loans rising 76 percent to 53 billion liras.

Net interest income of local banks amounted to 147.5 billion liras at the end of March, pointing to an annualized increase of 27 percent.

The share of non-performing loans in total loans was 1.82 percent, improving from 2.86 percent in March 2022. The capital adequacy ratio fell from 20 percent in March last year to 18 percent.

Deposits, the biggest fund resource of the banks, increased by 12.3 percent compared to the end of 2022 to 9.96 trillion liras, while total shareholders’ equity grew by 13.5 percent to 1.6 trillion liras.

There were 54 banks operating in Türkiye as of end-March, with 10,984 branches, down from 11,029 branches a year earlier.

Banks boosted the number of their employees from 200,810 to 208,504 but reduced the number of ATMs from 48,820 to 48,694.