Tuba Sahin
04 June 2020•Update: 04 June 2020
ANKARA
Turkey’s banking sector posted 19.7 billion Turkish liras ($2.8 billion) net profit as of end-April, the country's banking watchdog revealed Thursday.
Total assets of the sector hit 5.2 trillion Turkish liras ($750.9 billion), rising 22% from the same period last year, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) report said.
Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, rose 21% year-on-year to 3.1 trillion Turkish liras ($446.1 billion) in the January-April period.
On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey -- the largest liabilities item -- totaled 3 trillion Turkish liras ($429.4 billion), up 31% on an annual basis.
The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 6.96 as of April 30, versus around 5.93 at the end of last April.
Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 18.65% by the end of the month, while it was 16.89% in the same period of previous year.
The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- stood at 4.64% in the same period, versus 4.05% a year ago.
As of end-April, a total of 51 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- operated in the Turkish banking sector.
The sector had 203,865 employees serving through 11,335 branches both in Turkey and overseas with 49,436 ATMs.
