By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The total net profit of the Turkish banking sector hit 28.9 billion Turkish liras ($6.34 billion) in the first half of 2018, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) on Monday.

In the six-month period, the banking sector's net profit saw an annual hike of 13.8 percent, up from net profit of 25.4 billion Turkish liras ($7.24 billion) in January-June last year.

As of June 2018, the total assets of the sector stood at 3.67 trillion Turkish liras ($804.3 billion), with a 23.5 percent year-on-year increase, the banking watchdog said.

Marking a yearly rise of 22.6 percent, loans given by the sector -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- amounted to 2.35 trillion Turkish liras ($515.6 billion) at the end of June.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at the country's lenders totaled 1.9 trillion Turkish liras ($416.3 billion) as of June, indicating an annual increase of 20.3 percent.

According to the official data, the banking sector's regulatory capital to risk weighted assets ratio -- a significant indicator to figure out minimum capital requirements of lenders -- was at 16.26 percent this June, versus 16.87 percent in the same month last year.

The BDDK also reported that the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- another crucial indicator that shows how healthy the banking sector is -- was 3.02 percent last month, compared to 3.09 percent in June 2017.

In Turkey, some 50 state/private/foreign lenders, including deposit banks, participation banks, development and investment banks had over 11,700 domestic and overseas branches with around 210,000 employees as of June.

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.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.09 in the first half of this year while one dollar traded for 3.64 liras on average in January-June last year.