Turkish banks post $4 bln net profit in January-June

Turkey's banking sector registered a net profit of 33.8 billion Turkish liras ($4 billion) as of the end of June, the country's banking watchdog said on Aug. 5. 

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Total assets of the sector hit 6.7 trillion Turkish liras ($785 billion), up 10.2% from the same period last year, a report by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, surged 9.5% year-on-year to 3.9 trillion Turkish liras ($469 billion) in the six-month period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey - the largest liabilities item - totaled over 3.9 trillion Turkish liras ($469 billion), up 12% from a year ago.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio - the higher the better - was 17.75% by the end of this June, versus 19.52% in January 2020.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans - the lower the better - was 3.66% in the same period.

As of June, a total of 52 state/private/foreign lenders - including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks - operated in Turkey.

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The sector had 201,280 employees serving through 11,166 branches both in Turkey and abroad with 48,722 ATMs.