Turkish banks see $6B net profit in Jan-Sept

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s banking sector posted a net profit of 46.3 billion Turkish liras ($6 billion) as of end-September, the nation’s banking watchdog said Friday.

Total assets of the sector rose 40% year-on-year to some 6 trillion Turkish liras ($776.6 billion) in the nine-month period, a Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) report said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, were 3.6 trillion Turkish liras ($460.1 billion), up 40% compared to the same period last year.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – totaled nearly 3.4 trillion Turkish liras ($446.1 billion), a rise of 46% on an annual basis.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 19.42% by the end of September, versus 18.44% in the same period of the previous year.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 4.06% in the same period, versus 4.96% a year ago.

As of end-September, a total of 52 state/private/foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks – operated in the Turkish banking sector.

The sector had 203,114 employees serving through 11,295 branches both in Turkey and abroad with 49,465 ATMs.