UPDATE – Turkey: Banking sector posts $2.2B net profit in Q1

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; ADDS BACKGROUND INFORMATION</p> <p>By Muhammed Ali Gurtas </p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled some 12.35 billion Turkish liras ($2.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2019, the country's banking watchdog reported Tuesday. </p> <p>According to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, total assets of the sector rose by 22.6% on a yearly basis to reach 4.14 trillion liras ($740 billion). </p> <p>Amounting to some 2.52 trillion liras ($450 billion), loans — the biggest sub-category of assets — surged 14.6% year-on-year.</p> <p>On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.21 trillion Turkish liras ($395 billion) in the three-month period, marking an annual hike of 24.2%. </p> <p>The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira (USD/TRY) exchange rate was around 5.55 at the end of March this year, versus 4.00 at the end of the same month in 2018.</p> <p>The banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio was 16.35% in March, versus 16.56% in the same month last year.</p> <p>Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans was 4.04% in March, compared with 2.90% a year ago.</p> <p>A total of 51 state/private/foreign lenders — including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks — conducted banking activities in Turkey as of March.</p> <p>The sector had some 206,300 employees, doing business at over 11,500 branches both in Turkey and abroad with more than 64,000 ATMs.</p> <p>Last year, the Turkish banking sector's net profit totaled 53.5 billion Turkish liras ($10.6 billion) — up 10% annually.