Turkey's state-run lenders see $1.82B net profit in 2019

ISTANBUL

Three conventional state-run banks in Turkey -- Ziraat, VakifBank and Halkbank -- posted 10.85 billion Turkish liras ($1.82 billion) in net profit last year.

The total assets of state-run banks -- excluding state-run participation banks -- reached nearly 1.5 trillion Turkish liras ($250 billion) by the end of June, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency from unconsolidated balance sheets and the country's banking watchdog.

The banks' pretax earnings totaled 13.4 billion Turkish liras ($2.25 billion) in 2019, while their deposits were 922.5 billion Turkish liras ($155 billion) as of the end of last year.

Among the three banks, Ziraat saw the highest net profit with 6.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.04 billion). Its assets totaled 650 billion Turkish liras ($109 billion) as of the end of the year.

Vakif Bank's net profit was 2.8 billion Turkish liras ($470 million), while Halk Bank saw a net profit of 1.72 billion Turkish liras ($289 million) during the same period.

While Vakif's total assets amounted to 420 billion liras ($70.6 billion), Halk's total assets stood at 380 billion ($63.86 billion).

The banks' regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator in determining lenders' minimum capital requirements -- was at 16.3% as of June.

The three banks' domestic and international branches totaled at 3,707 combined, employing more than 60,000 staff by the end of the same period.

Meanwhile, the Turkish banking sector -- including all types of lenders -- posted 49.2 billion Turkish liras ($4.3 billion) in net profits during the year.

The total assets of Turkey's banking sector amounted to 4.5 trillion Turkish liras ($732.5 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.95 as of the end of the last year.