Turkish banking sector posts $19.9B net profits in November

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Net profits of Türkiye's banking sector in November totaled 842.84 billion Turkish liras ($19.92 billion), the country's banking watchdog said Monday.

The sector's net profits surged 17.3% compared to the same month last year, according to data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

Total assets of the sector reached 44.97 trillion liras ($1.06 trillion) at the end of November. Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, totaled 22.17 trillion liras ($524.2 billion).

Deposits, the largest liabilities item, amounted to 26.06 trillion Turkish liras ($616.5 billion) last month.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – rose to 19.2% by the end of November.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans, the lower the better, stood at 2.43%.

As of the end of November, 67 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks and development and investment banks, operated in the Turkish banking sector.

The sector had 211,244 employees serving at 10,747 branches in Türkiye and overseas in November.