Lenders post $8.3 billion profit in 2019

The combined profit of Turkish banks totaled some 49.75 billion Turkish Liras (around $8.3 billion) in the whole of 2019, the country's banking watchdog BDDK reported on Jan. 30.

In 2018, the Turkish banking industry's net income stood at 54.12 billion liras.

According to data from the BDDK, the total assets of the sector rose by 16.1 percent - or some 624 billion liras - from the end of 2018 to reach 4.49 trillion liras.

Loans - the largest subcategory of assets - extended by local lenders grew by 11 percent compared to end-2018 to hit 2.66 trillion.

The non-performing loans to total loans ratio across the banking industry stood at 5.23 percent at the end of 2019, the BDKK also reported.

The banks' net interest income increased to 162 billion liras from 146 billion liras a year ago with interest revenues from loans standing at 323 billion versus 282 billion in the same period of 2018.

Lenders' interest income collected from consumer loans amounted to 63.5 billion liras, up from 56.6 billion liras a year earlier.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in the country amounted to 2.6 trillion liras as of end December, jumping 26.1 percent compared with end-2018.

The BDDK data also showed that local banks paid out a total of out 175 billion as interest on deposits last year versus 152 billion in 2018.

Average interest rates on deposits in the Turkish banking industry have been falling since the second half of 2019 and hit 9.6 percent, which marked a three-year low, state-run Anadolu Agency reported recently.

Interest rates for deposits, which averaged at around 23 percent in June last year, have gradually come down below 10 percent in 2020. As of Jan. 17, those rates were 9.6 percent.