State-run lenders post $2.1 bln net profit in 2020

Three major conventional state-run banks in Turkey - Ziraat, VakıfBank, and Halkbank - posted 15.43 billion Turkish liras ($2.1 billion) in net profit last year.

The banks' net profit rose from around 10.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion) in the previous year, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency from unconsolidated balance sheets and the country's banking watchdog.

The total assets of state-run banks - excluding state-run participation banks - reached 2.22 trillion Turkish liras ($302 billion) by the end of December 2020, it was around 1.5 trillion Turkish liras ($250 billion) in the previous period.

The banks' pretax earnings were over 20.5 billion Turkish liras (some $2.8 billion) in 2020, while their deposits were 1.4 trillion Turkish liras ($190 billion) as of the end of last year.

Among the three banks, Ziraat saw the highest net profit with 7.82 billion Turkish liras ($1.06 billion). Its assets totaled 942.6 billion Turkish liras ($128.24 billion) as of the end of the year.

Vakif Bank's net profit was 5.01 billion Turkish liras ($681 million), while Halk Bank saw a net profit of 2.6 billion Turkish liras ($353 million) during the same period.

While Vakif's total assets amounted to 698.9 billion liras ($95 billion), Halk's total assets stood at 680 billion liras ($92.5 billion).

Loans, issued by these three banks, were 1.41 trillion Turkish liras ($190.55 billion) last year.

The banks' regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets ratio - a significant indicator in determining lenders' minimum capital requirements - was at 16.98% as of last December, up from 16.3% compared to December 2019.

The number of the three banks' domestic and international branches totaled 3,668 combined,...