Turkey's state-run banks see nearly $2B net profit in first 6 months of 2018

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Combined net profits of Turkey's state-run banks -- Ziraat, Vakıf, and Halk -- stood at 7.95 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.95 billion) in the first half of 2018.

Their net profit totaled 8.9 billion Turkish liras ($2.4 billion) in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency correspondent from nonconsolidated balance sheets.

The total assets of the three banks reached 1.15 trillion Turkish liras ($281.17 billion) by the end of the first half of 2018.

Among the three banks, Ziraat saw the highest net profit with 3.95 billion Turkish liras (nearly $966 million), down by 8 percent year on-year. Its assets totaled 497.6 billion liras ($121.6 billion).  Vakıf Bank's net profit stood at 2.1 billion Turkish liras ($513.4
million).

Halk Bank's net profit also dropped 23 percent to 1.9 billion Turkish liras ($464.5 million) during the same period. 

While Halk's total assets amounted to 348.3 billion liras ($85.15 billion), Vakif's total assets totaled 306 billion liras ($74.8 billion).

The total net profit of the Turkish banking sector reached 28.9 billion Turkish liras ($6.34 billion) in the first half of 2018. Its total assets stood at 3.67 trillion Turkish liras ($804.3 billion), according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency data.

The banking sector's regulatory capital to risk weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator to figure out minimum capital requirements of lenders -- was at 16.26 percent this June, versus 16.87 percent in the same month last year.

In Turkey, some 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks, development and investment banks had over 11,700 domestic and overseas branches with around 210,000 employees as of June.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.09 in the first half of this year while one dollar traded for 3.64 liras on average in January-June last year.