UPDATE - Turkey:Banking sector posts $3.4B net profit in Jan-May

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's banking sector net profit totaled 19.7 billion Turkish liras (nearly $3.4 billion) in January-May this year, the country's banking watchdog reported Thursday.

According to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, total assets of the sector surged 17.3% year-on-year to reach 4.27 trillion Turkish liras ($732 billion).

Loans -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- went up 8.9% on a yearly basis to amount to some 2.55 trillion Turkish liras ($437 billion).

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.27 trillion Turkish liras (some $390 billion) in the five-month period, marking an annual hike of 19.8%.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was around 5.93 at the end of May this year, versus 4.49 at the end of the same month in 2018.

The banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 17.07% in May, compared with 15.90% in the same month last year.

Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- was 4.18% in May, versus 2.82% a year ago.

A total of 51 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- conducted banking activities in Turkey as of May.

The sector had over 206,000 employees, doing business at nearly 11,500 branches both in Turkey and abroad with more than 48,500 ATMs.

Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled 53.5 billion Turkish liras ($10.6 billion) -- up 10% annually.