Turkey: Banking sector sees $4.5B net profit in H1

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The net profit of Turkey's banking sector totaled 30.8 billion Turkish liras ($4.53 billion) in the first half of this year, the country's banking watchdog announced Thursday.

The banking sector's net profit was up 23.7%, compared with 24.89 billion Turkish liras ($4.3 billion) in the same period last year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

Total assets of the sector were 5.35 trillion liras ($784.18 billion) as of end-June, up 26.5% on a yearly basis.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, amounted to 3.26 trillion liras ($477.14 billion), a rise of 28.3% on an annual basis.

Deposits held at lenders in Turkey -- the largest liabilities item -- totaled 3 trillion Turkish liras ($448.4 billion), jumping 34.8% from the January-June period last year.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 19.50 by the end the last month, up from 17.73% in June 2019.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- stood at 4.41% in the same period, versus 4.36% a year ago.

As of end-2019, a total of 51 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- operated in the Turkish banking sector.

The sector had 206,032 employees, serving through 11,495 branches both in Turkey and overseas.