İşbank’s profit falls by 5.5 percent in Q2

ISTANBUL

Turkish lender İşbank posted a second-quarter net profit of 829.4 million Turkish Liras ($381.35 million), less than Reuters’ forecast of 897 million liras, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange late Aug. 8. The bank’s profits fell by 5.5 percent from 877.5 million liras in the second quarter of 2013.

Also, İşbank’s loans and receivables reached 139.3 billion liras at the end of the second quarter, results showed. The figure increases to 180 billion liras when non-cash loans are included. However, the largest private bank in the country’s second-half profits fell to 1.65 million liras from 1.76 billion liras in the same period a year earlier.

Late last month, global rating agency Fitch downgraded İşbank’s rating, along with two other large private Turkish banks, citing “increased risks from recent rapid credit growth and higher external debt, against a background of moderate deterioration in most financial metrics in recent years.”

“İşbank, founded one year after the modern [Turkish] republic and preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary, will keep on pioneering the sector and creating value for the country thanks to the power it borrows from its customers, shareholders and employees,” General Manager Adnan Bali said in a statement.