Turkish banking system healthy, solid: TBA head

Turkey's banking system is healthy and solid, president of the Turkish Banking Association (TBA) said Monday.

Speaking at Anadolu Agency's Finance Desk, Hüseyin Aydın said the banking system will continue to contribute to Turkey's economic growth.

"Turkish banking system is strong enough to meet credit demands of its customers," Aydın said.

He underlined that capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio of Turkish banks at 14% is at least 50% above the globally accepted ratio of 8%.

"Turkish banking system repaid all loans and syndications on time," he said.

Aydın, who is also the head of Turkey's largest state-run lender Ziraat Bank, addressed CPI-indexed mortgage loans provided by the bank to back housing sales.

"We wanted to bring forward the demands of our customers who postponed housing purchase," Aydın said.

Housing sales in Turkey dropped more than 30% year-on-year in May, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

The mortgaged house sales amounted to 5,231 -- going down 85.8% year-on-year -- with a 6.4% share of all sales in May, TurkStat data showed.