UPDATE - Turkey: Banking sector posts $2.2B net profit in Q1

Country's banking watchdog says sector's total assets were $740 billion, loans amounted to $450 billion as of end of March

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; ADDS BACKGROUND INFORMATION

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled some 12.35 billion Turkish liras ($2.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2019, the country's banking watchdog reported Tuesday.

According to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, total assets of the sector rose by 22.6% on a yearly basis to reach 4.14 trillion liras ($740 billion).

Amounting to some 2.52 trillion liras ($450 billion), loans -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- surged 14.6% year-on-year.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.21 trillion Turkish liras ($395 billion) in the three-month period, marking an annual hike of 24.2%.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was around 5.55 at the end of March this year, versus 4.00 at the end of the same month in 2018.

The banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio was 16.35% in March, versus 16.56% in the same month last year.

Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans was 4.04% in March, compared with 2.90% a year ago.

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

The sector had some 206,300 employees, doing business at over 11,500 branches both in Turkey and abroad with more than 64,000 ATMs.

Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled 53.5 billion Turkish liras ($10.6 billion) -- up 10% annually.

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