Turkey:State-run banks see $2.4B net profit in Jan-Sept

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey’ state-run banks -- Ziraat, Vakif, and Halk -- posted 10.94 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2.38 billion) net profit in the first nine months of 2018.

Their net profit totaled 12.3 billion Turkish liras ($3.4 billion) in the same period last year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency correspondent from nonconsolidated balance sheets.

The total assets of the three conventional banks -- excluding the two state-run participation banks -- reached nearly 1.3 trillion Turkish liras ($213 billion) by the end of September.

Among the three banks, Ziraat saw the highest net profit with 5.64 billion Turkish liras (nearly $1.23 billion), down by 13 percent year-on-year. Its assets totaled 552 billion Turkish liras ($90 billion), as of the end of September.

Vakif Bank's net profit rose 10.7 percent to 3.1 billion Turkish liras ($675 million).

Halk Bank's net profit dropped 26.6 percent to 2.2 billion Turkish liras ($479 million) during the same period.

While Halk's total assets amounted to 387.3 billion liras ($63.6 billion), Vakif's total assets stood at 353.4 billion Turkish liras ($58 billion).

The total net profit of the Turkish banking sector reached 42.17 billion Turkish liras ($9.2 billion) in the nine-month period of 2018. Its total assets stood at 4.2 trillion Turkish liras ($689 billion) as of September, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency data.

The banking sector's regulatory capital to risk weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator to figure out minimum capital requirements of lenders -- was at 18.08 percent this September, versus 17.20 percent in the same month last year.

In Turkey, some 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks, development and investment banks had nearly 11,600 domestic and overseas branches with around 208,000 employees as of September.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.59 in the first nine months of this year while one dollar traded for 3.6 liras on average in the January-September period last year. It was also 6.09 as of the end of September.