Turkish banks’ profits rise 19 percent at end-July

ISTANBUL

The net profits of Turkish banks increased 18.8 percent at an annualized pace in January-July, according to banking watchdog data.

The sector saw a 348.7 billion liras ($10.6 billion) net profit as of the end of July, up from 293.4 billion liras last year, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) data showed.

Total bank assets were at 28.6 trillion liras, rising more than 21 percent compared with the end of 2023, with loans hitting 14.1 trillion liras, up 21 percent during the same period.

Deposits held at lenders amounted to 16.9 trillion liras, marking a 14.1 percent increase from the end of last year.

The sector’s regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio stood at 17 percent as of the end of July.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans was only 1.68 percent.

As of the end of July, a total of 62 banks were operating in Türkiye.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank announced changes to the reserve requirements for lenders.

Accordingly, the monthly growth target was increased to 0.8 points for banks with real person liras deposit shares between 45 percent and 50 percent.

The monthly growth target is abolished for banks with real person lira deposit shares exceeding 60 percent, and a condition of keeping this share above 60 percent has been introduced.

The upper limit for the remuneration of required reserves, which should be maintained for lira deposits, based on the rate of transition to lira has been increased to 84 percent of the policy rate, the bank said.

The ratio for maintaining lira-required reserves in blocked accounts has been increased by 5 points.