Turkey: Banking sector net profit at $8.1B in Jan-Nov

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish banking sector's net profits this January-November totaled 46.6 billion Turkish liras ($8.1 billion), the country's banking watchdog said Monday.

The figure fell 8% year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2019, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency data showed.

Total assets of the sector amounted to 4.35 trillion Turkish liras ($760.7 billion), up 13.3% over the same period last year.

Total banking sector loans -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- soared 8.8% year-on-year to hit 2.6 trillion Turkish liras ($453.7 billion) in January-November.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in the country amounted to 2.45 trillion Turkish liras ($429 billion), up 23% during the same period.

The data showed that the sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 18.63% this November versus 18.21% in November 2018.

Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- stood at 5.23% last month, up from 3.70% in November 2018

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