Turkey’s millionaires’ club added more than 18,000 new members last year

ISTANBUL

The number of local residents with at least one million liras in their bank accounts increased by 18,105 people from a year ago to hit 126,969 in 2017, according to data compiled by state-run Anadolu Agency.

They collectively held a total of 835.6 billion liras in bank accounts as of the end of 2017.

Data from the Banking Regulatory and Supervision Agency (BDDK) showed that these millionaires held 424.2 billion liras in local currency and 408.2 billion liras in foreign currency accounts, while they parked 3.2 billion liras in precious metal deposits.

The millionaires on average had 6.6 million in their deposit account balances last year.

In 2016, the number of people with one million liras or more in their bank accounts was 108,864 and their collective holdings in those accounts amounted to 715.3 billion liras.

Non-residents’ accounts with local banks

The data also showed that the number of non-residents who have deposit accounts with Turkish banks increased by 71 percent in 2017 from a year ago to reach 12,011. The amount of money they held in local bank accounts stood at 74.4 billion liras.

Non-residents held 6.4 billion liras in local currency accounts, 67.6 billion liras in foreign currency accounts and 282 million liras in precious metal deposits.