Turkish banks earn over $1B net profit in February

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish banking sector posted a net profit of 3.85 billion Turkish liras ($1.02 billion) in February, said the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) on Friday.

The net profit of the sector decreased by 19.1 percent compared to February 2017.

The banking sector also saw an 8.38-billion-Turkish lira ($2.22 billion) net profit in the first two months of 2018, down from 8.45 billion Turkish liras ($2.34 billion) at the same period of 2017.

The banking watchdog said the total assets of Turkey's banking sector totaled 3.3 trillion Turkish liras ($871.55 billion) with an annual rise of 17.02 percent, as of February 2018.

Loans given by banks -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- stood at 2.14 trillion Turkish liras ($567.2 billion) at the end of February -- marking a 19.5 percent yearly increase.

Deposits held in the country's banks amounted to 1.75 trillion Turkish liras ($459 billion) as of February, indicating a 18.2 percent rise year-on-year.

The banking sector's regulatory capital to risk weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator to figure out minimum capital requirements of lenders -- was at 16.71 percent in February, up from 15.91 percent in the same month of 2017.

According to the BDDK figures, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- another crucial indicator that shows how healthy the banking sector is -- was 2.92 percent as of February this year, showing an improvement by falling from 3.25 percent in the same month of last year.

In Turkey, nearly 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit, participation, development and investment banks had over 11,500 domestic and overseas branches with more than 208,000 employees as of February.

Last year, Turkish banking sector's net profit hit its all-time high, reaching 49.1 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion) with a yearly increase of 30.8 percent.