Profits of Turkish banks surge in first half of 2017

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) – The profits of nine top Turkish lenders traded on Borsa Istanbul rose 32.9 percent in the first half of the year from the same period in 2016, according to the Public Disclosure Platform's (KAP) data Thursday.

The deposit banks, traded on the country's main stock exchange, boasted 16.96 billion Turkish liras ($4.81 billion) in net profits in the first half of 2017, up from 12.8 billion Turkish liras ($3.63 billion) in the same period of 2016.

The Turkish lenders' total assets rose over 9 percent to 1.96 trillion Turkish liras ($556.7 billion) through June compared to the first half of 2016.

According to the the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), the net profits of the Turkish banking sector increased by 33.2 percent in the first half of this year to 25.35 billion Turkish liras ($7.19 billion) year-on-year. In total, banks' profits reached 19.33 billion Turkish liras ($5.49 billion).