Turkish banks’ profits decline in January, show data

The combined net profit of Turkish banks declined by 19 percent in January from a year ago to 32 billion Turkish Liras ($1 billion), according to the data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

In January last year, lender's net income was 39.3 billion.

The banking sector posted a net profit of 603.6 billion liras last year, marking a 39.8 percent increase from 2022.

The total assets of the banking industry increased by 1.5 percent from the end of 2023 to stand at 23.9 trillion, the watchdog said.

The banks' securities portfolio grew nearly 4 percent over the same period to reach around 4.1 trillion liras.

Loans extended by Turkish lenders exhibited an increase of 2.2 percent compared to the end of 2023 climb to 11.94 trillion liras as of January.

Interests the banks collected from loans soared 181 percent to 246 billion liras, with interests from consumer loans rising 86 percent. Interest income from credit cards grew at a staggering rate of 529 percent to 22.8 billion liras.

However, the interest banks paid for deposits leaped 329 percent from a year ago to touch 261 billion liras.

Consequently, the banks' net interest revenues inched up 3 percent last month from January 2023.

The share of non-performing loans (NPL) in total loans was only 1.6 percent, improving from the NPL ratio of 2.1 percent in the previous year.

Deposits, the biggest fund resource of the banks, inched up 0.6 percent annually to 14.95 trillion liras.

The capital adequacy standard ratio in the industry was 18.9 percent.

The number of banks in Türkiye increased from 54 in 2022 to 61, which nearly had 10,877 branches and some 208,400 employees.

The lenders had 10,967 branches and 207...