Turkey: Banking sector net profit at $7.4B in Jan-Nov

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey’s banking sector posted a net profit of 57.3 billion Turkish liras ($7.37 billion) in the first 11 months of 2020, the country’s banking watchdog said on Tuesday.

The sector's net profit was up 23%, compared with 46.55 billion Turkish liras ($8.1 billion) in the same period last year, according to a Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) report.

Total assets of the sector rose 34.8% year-on-year to some 6.12 trillion Turkish liras ($786.88 billion) as of the end of November, the report showed.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, were 3.63 trillion Turkish liras ($466 billion), increasing 39.7% compared to the same period last year.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – totaled nearly 3.48 trillion Turkish liras ($447.5 billion), up some %42 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 19.38% by the end of November, versus 18.63% in the same period of the previous year.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 3.97% in the same period, versus 5.23% 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 November.

The sector had 204,256 employees, serving through 11,435 branches both in Turkey and overseas.