UPDATE-Turkey: Banking sector's net profit surges in Jan-Sept

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's banking sector's net profit reached 42.2 billion Turkish liras ($7.06 billion) this January-September, the country's banking watchdog reported Tuesday.

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said the sector's nine-month net profit saw a 13.4-percent annual rise, up from 37.2 billion liras ($10.5 billion) over the same period last year.

As of September, the banking sector's total assets were 4.2 trillion liras ($705.2 billion), a climb of 55.4 percent year-on-year.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, grew 29.7 percent on a yearly basis to 2.6 trillion liras ($433.7 billion) at the end of September.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey totaled 2.1 trillion liras ($358.2 billion), up 30.6 percent in the same period.

At the end of this September, one U.S. dollar was traded for some 6.10 Turkish liras, versus a USD/TRY rate of around 3.60 at the end of September 2017.

Marking lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio was 18.08 percent this September which was 17.20 percent a year ago.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- indicating the healthiness of given loans -- was 3.22 percent in September, showing a slight deterioration compared to 3.04 percent in the same month last year.

As of September, a total of 50 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- operated in the Turkish banking sector.

The sector had more than 208,600 employees, serving through nearly 11,600 branches both in Turkey and overseas locations with some 48,300 ATMs.

Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit hit an all-time high, reaching around 49 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion) -- a yearly increase of 30.8 percent.