Turkey: Banking sector's 9-month net profit up 28.6 pct

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s banking sector's net profit reached 37.2 billion Turkish liras ($10.5 billion) between January and September this year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) on Monday.

Turkish banks' nine-month net profit recorded a yearly increase of 28.6 percent, compared with 28.9 billion Turkish liras ($9.65 billion) net profit over the same period last year, according to the banking watchdog.

As of this September, the total assets of Turkey's banking sector were 3.05 trillion Turkish liras ($862.4 billion), rising 20.5 percent year-on-year.

Loans given by banks -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- stood at 1.99 trillion Turkish liras ($563.2 billion) at the end of this September, compared to 1.61 trillion Turkish liras ($538.2 billion) of loans in the same month of 2016.

Deposits held at the country's banks amounted to 1.63 trillion Turkish liras ($462.2 billion) as of Sept. 29, indicating a 22 percent rise on a yearly basis.

The banking sector's regulatory capital to risk weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator to figure out minimum capital requirements of lenders -- was at 17.2 percent last month, while it was 16.03 percent in September, 2016.

BDDK figures showed that the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- another crucial indicator shows how healthy the banking sector is -- stood at 3.04 percent this September, down from 3.31 percent in the same month last year.

In Turkey, nearly 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks, development and investment banks had over 11,500 domestic and overseas branches with almost 210,000 employees at the end of the third quarter this year.

The Turkish banking sector posted 37.5 billion Turkish liras ($10.7 billion) net profit last year while total assets of the sector stood at 2.73 trillion Turkish liras ($778 billion) as of Dec. 30, 2016.

On the last business day of last year, the banking sector's total loans and deposits stood at 1.73 trillion Turkish liras (around $495 billion) and 1.45 trillion Turkish liras (nearly $415 billion), respectively.

On Sept. 29, the U.S. dollar/Turkish lira rate was 3.57, following sharp fluctuations after last year's defeated coup attempt and climbed to its historic high -- around 3.94 liras -- in mid-January this year.

In the first nine months of this year, one dollar traded for 3.60 liras on average, while the average dollar/lira exchange rate was 3.02 last year.