Turkish banks post $6.04 billion net profit in January-October

Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s banking sector posted a net profit of 50 billion Turkish liras ($6.047 billion) in the first 10 months of 2020, the nation’s banking watchdog said on Nov. 30. 

The sector's net profit was up 21 percent, compared with 41.3 billion Turkish liras ($7.3 billion) in the same period last year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

Total assets of the sector rose 44.3 percent year-on-year to some 6.23 trillion Turkish liras ($751.9 billion) as of the end of October, a Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) report said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, were 3.66 trillion Turkish liras ($441.4 billion), up 42.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – totaled nearly 3.6 trillion Turkish liras ($433.5 billion), nearly a rise of 50 percent on an annual basis.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 19.42 percent by the end of October, versus 18.49% in the same period of the previous year.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 3.97% in the same period, versus 5.15 percent a year ago.

A total of 52 state/private/foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks – conducted banking activities in Turkey as of October.

The sector had 204,653 employees, serving through 11,427 branches both in Turkey and overseas.