Banks’ profits rise 39 percent in January-August
ISTANBUL
The combined net income of Turkish banks increased by 39 percent in January-August from a year ago, totaling 350.6 billion Turkish Liras ($12.8 billion), according to the data of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).
Total assets in the banking industry grew by 41.7 percent compared with the end of 2022 to 20.3 trillion liras, while their loans, the largest item in assets, increased more than 37.8 percent over the same period to stand at 10.45 trillion liras as of the end of August.
Interest income from loans was up 72 percent to 825 billion liras, with interest collected from consumer loans rising 76 percent to 163 billion.
Banks’ total interest expenditures leaped 156 percent compared with January-August last year to more than 953 billion liras.
Lenders’ net interest income, consequently, dropped 14 percent year-on-year to 362 billion.
The share of non-performing loans in total loans was realized as 1.6 percent.
The securities portfolio of local lenders rose by 47 percent to 3.49 trillion liras.
“Deposits, the biggest fund resource of the banks, increased by 45.9 percent compared to the previous year-end to 12.9 trillion liras,” BDDK said.
The Central Bank, in late August, started to roll back the FX-protected deposit accounts scheme, also known as KKM.
This month, the bank announced additional measures designed to increase the share of Turkish Lira deposits.
According to the instruction sent to local lenders, the targeted monthly rise in the share of lira deposits in total deposits was raised from 2 percent to 2.5 percent.
On Sept. 25, the Central Bank also unveiled new steps, eliminating a previous minimum interest requirement for some KKM accounts.
Amid the measures the bank announced, the money deposited in KKM accounts started to decline.
The latest data from BDDK show that the money in the KMM accounts, which climbed to 3.4 trillion liras on Aug. 18, dropped to a little more than 3.3 billion liras (around $122 billion) as of Sept. 22.