Turkish banks post $4 bln net profit in January-June

ANKARA

Turkey’s banking sector registered a net profit of 33.8 billion Turkish liras ($4 billion) as of the end of June, the country's banking watchdog said on Aug. 5. 

Total assets of the sector hit 6.7 trillion Turkish liras ($785 billion), up 10.2% from the same period last year, a report by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, surged 9.5% year-on-year to 3.9 trillion Turkish liras ($469 billion) in the six-month period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – totaled over 3.9 trillion Turkish liras ($469 billion), up 12% from a year ago.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 17.75% by the end of this June, versus 19.52% in January 2020.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 3.66% in the same period.

As of June, a total of 52 state/private/foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks – operated in Turkey.

The sector had 201,280 employees serving through 11,166 branches both in Turkey and abroad with 48,722 ATMs.