Net profit of Turkish banks surges in Jan.

By Fatih Erkan Dogan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish banking sector net profit surged in January, official data revealed on Wednesday.

The net profit of the Turkish banking sector was 3.7 billion Turkish liras ($973 million) in January, up 50.1 percent from same period of last year, according to data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.

The capital adequacy ratio, a vital gauge of the health of a country’s banking sector, was 15.1 percent in the month, signaling the Turkish banking sector retained its resilience against shocks.

Assets also rose to 2.866 trillion Turkish liras ($759.9 billion), an increase of 135 billion Turkish liras ($358 million) or five percent from December of last year.

In January the largest assets class was loans with 1.804 trillion Turkish liras ($478.5 billion), up by four percent from the previous month while securities were at 364.5 billion Turkish liras ($96.6 billion), a 3.7 percent increase.

The biggest source of funds for banks, deposits, were up 3.2 percent from the previous month to 1.5 trillion Turkish liras ($398 billion).