Turkey: Banking sector’s net profit rises 12 pct

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

Turkey’s banking sector's net profit climbed 12 percent annually in the January-November period, according to the country's banking watchdog on Monday.

The figure amounted to 50.7 billion ($9.8 billion) in the first eleven months of 2018, up from 45.2 billion ($11.5 billion) in the same period last year, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) data revealed.

The sector's total assets increased 17.5 percent year-on-year and reached over 3.8 trillion liras ($743.7 billion) as of Nov. 30.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, totaled 2.4 trillion liras ($461.8 billion) from January to November, rising 13 percent from the same period last year.

On the liabilities side, deposits at the country's lenders climbed 16.5 percent over the same period, reaching 2 trillion Turkish liras ($386 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.21 as of Nov. 30 this year, while one U.S. dollar traded for some 3.92 at the end of the same month last year.

Turkish banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio, an indicator for calculating lenders' minimum capital requirements, was 18.21 percent in November.

The ratio of non-performing loans (NPL) to total cash loans -- a measure for the healthiness of given loans -- deteriorated annually to reach 3.7 percent last month, up from 2.93 percent in November 2017.

As of November-end, 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks, operate baking activities in Turkey with nearly 11,600 branches -- domestic and overseas -- and 207,470 employees.

Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit hit an all-time high, reaching around 49 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion) -- a yearly increase of 30.8 percent.