UPDATE - Turkish banking sector posts $615M net profit in Jan.

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; ADDS BACKGROUND INFORMATION

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's banking sector net profit totaled 3.2 billion Turkish liras ($615 million) in January, the country's banking watchdog announced on Friday.

On a yearly basis, total assets of the sector climbed 18.8 percent, amounting to 3.86 trillion Turkish liras ($746 billion).

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, surged 12.6 percent year-on-year to reach 2.37 trillion Turkish liras ($459 billion).

As the largest liabilities, item deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.04 trillion Turkish liras ($396 billion), marking an annual hike of 19.4 percent.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.29 as of Jan. 31 this year, versus 3.79 at the end of same month in 2018.

The banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 17.12 percent in January, compared with 16.80 percent a year ago.

Measuring the healthiness of given loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- was 4.03 percent in January, versus 2.94 percent in the same month last year.

A total of 50 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- conducted banking activities in Turkey as of January.

The sector had around 208,000 employees, serving through over 11,500 branches both in Turkey and overseas locations with 48,455 ATMs.

Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled 53.5 billion Turkish liras ($10.6 billion) -- a yearly increase of 10 percent.