Local banks report 48.5 bln liras of net profit in January-August

ISTANBUL

Turkish banks managed to increase their net profit by 12.8 percent on an annual basis to 48.5 billion Turkish Liras (around $5.5 billion) in the first eight months of 2021, data from the banking sector watchdog have shown.

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) reported that the total assets of the banking sector grew by nearly 694 billion liras - or 11.4 percent - from end-2020 to stand at 6.8 trillion liras as of end-August while loans extended by lenders, which are the largest items in assets, increased by 9.3 percent over the same period to climb to 3.9 trillion liras.

Banks’ securities portfolio also exhibited a nearly 13 percent rise compared with end-2020 to stand at 1.15 trillion liras as of end-August.

Interest income banks collected from credits increased by 36 percent on an annual basis to 199 billion liras, while interest revenues from credit cards soared 102 percent to 6.7 billion. Interest payments to deposits rose by 115 percent from a year ago to 70.7 billion liras and lenders’ net interest income declined 10 percent on an annual basis to 148 billion liras in January-August.

The watchdog also reported that the non-performing loans/total loans ratio in the banking industry was 3.67 percent as of end-August, improving from the 4.1 percent a year ago.

The capital adequacy ratio, however, dropped to 17 percent from 19 percent.

There were 53 banks operating in Turkey as of end-August. The number of bank branches in the country declined to 11,080 from 11,213, while the number of employees in the banking sector dropped to 200,900 from 202,000.