Turkish banking sector net profit hits $4.3B in first half of 2019

Turkey's banking sector posted a net profit of 24.8 billion Turkish liras (some $4.3 billion) in the first half of this year, the country's banking watchdog said on Tuesday.

Total assets of the sector amounted to 4.2 trillion Turkish liras ($737 billion) as of end-June, rising 9.5% year-on-year, a report from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency showed.

The sector's loans climbed nearly 8% to reach 2.5 trillion Turkish liras ($442.3 billion) during the same period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey were 2.27 trillion Turkish liras (some $390 billion) in January-June, up 20% on a yearly basis.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.74 at the end of this June.

The banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio, the higher the better, stood at 17.73% last month, compared with 16.26% in the same month last year.

The report showed that the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better as it measures the health of loans -- was 4.36% in June 2019, versus 3% in June 2018.

As of end-June, 51 state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- conducted banking activities in the country.