Turkey: Banking sector net profit at $6.4B in Jan-Sept

The net profit of Turkey's banking sector totaled 36.2 billion Turkish liras ($6.4 billion) in January-September, the country's banking watchdog said Wednesday. The figure was down 12.5% on an annual basis in the first nine months of this year, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) data showed. Total assets of the sector amounted to 4.27 trillion Turkish liras ($758.8 billion), rising by 1.5% over the same period last year. Banking sector's total loans -- the biggest sub-category of assets -- fell by 2.2% year-on-year to hit 2.53 trillion Turkish liras ($449.8 billion) in the January-September period. On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in the country amounted to 2.4 trillion Turkish liras ($420 billion), up 8.7% during the same period. The Wednesday data showed that the sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio -- the higher the better -- was 18.44% in September this year versus 18.04% in September 2018. Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans -- the lower the better -- stood at 4.96% last month, increasing from 3.22% in September last year. As of September, the number of state/private/foreign lenders -- including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks -- conducted banking activities in Turkey was 51.