ANKARA 

Turkey’s banking sector registered a net profit of 27.3 billion Turkish liras ($4 billion) as of the end of May, the country's banking watchdog announced Monday.

Total assets of the sector hit 5.3 trillion Turkish liras ($776.4 billion), up 24% from the same period last year, a report by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) said.

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, surged 24% year-on-year to 3.1 trillion Turkish liras ($464.7 billion) in the five-month period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey -- the largest liabilities item -- totaled nearly 3 trillion Turkish liras ($437.4 billion), up 31% on an annual basis.

The US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 6.80 as of end-May, versus around 5.93 at the end of last May. 

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 19.44% by the end of the month, while it was 17.07% in the same period of previous year.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- stood at 4.54% in the same period, versus 4.18% a year ago.

As of end-May, 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 203,797 employees serving through 11,333 branches both in Turkey and overseas with 49,392 ATMs.