Turkish banks profits up as momentum persists

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s İşbank says it had posted a net profit of 1,024 billion liras ($568 million) in the first quarter of 2013. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

Turkey’s largest banks continued to produce high profits in the first quarter of the year, with İşbank earning over 1 billion Turkish Liras and Yapı Kredi saying its profits had risen by 31 percent to 544 million liras in the first three months of the year.

The higher-than-expected profits of the two lenders came mainly thanks to the rising net interest income, as well as the fee and commission revenues for the period.

İşbank announced on May 7 that it had posted a net profit of 1,024 billion liras ($568 million) in the first quarter, up from 708 million liras a year earlier and exceeding the forecasts of market analysts, which had been around 898 million liras.

“Within the frame of its profitable and sustainable growth strategy, İşbank has showed a great performance in this period as well,” İşbank CEO Adnan Bali said in a statement.The bank also kept its position as the top bank in giving commercial loans in cash, as 79 billion liras worth of its total loan procurement of 111 billion liras were in cash.

İşbank’s smaller rival, Yapı Kredi, also posted impressive net profit of 544 million for the first quarter. Its profit thus jumped by 31 percent from the same period last year, while its size of assets has grown to 135 billion liras.

Strong banking results, accompanied by expectations of another sovereign credit rating upgrade, have lifted Turkish shares for a short period of time, during a slump after four sessions of gains.