Turkish banking sector's net profit at $6.4B in Jan-Sept

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's banks saw a net profit of 57 billion Turkish liras ($6.4 billion) this January-September, the country's banking watchdog said Monday.

The nine-month figure rose from 46.4 billion Turkish liras ($6 billion) in the same period last year, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) data showed.

Total assets of the banks surpassed 7 trillion Turkish liras ($796.7 billion) as of end-September, up 17% from the same period last year.

Loans, the largest sub-category of assets, went up 13% to some 4 trillion Turkish liras ($756.6 billion) during the same period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey reached 4.1 trillion liras ($464.6 billion) as of the end of the month, up 19% year-on-year.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 17.30% by the end of this September, worsened from 19.42% last September.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 3.54% versus 4.06% in September 2020.

As of the end of September, a total of 53 state/private/foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks, development and investment banks – were operating in Turkey.

The sector had 201,665 employees serving through 11,155 branches both in Turkey and abroad with 48,763 ATMs.