Turkish banks’ profit rise 45 pct in January-March

ISTANBUL

The combined profit of Turkish banks increased by 44.7 percent in the first quarter of 2024 from a year ago to 153.5 billion Turkish Liras ($4.8 billion).

Assets of lenders grew by 9.9 percent, or by 2.3 trillion liras, from the end of 2023 to reach 25.87 trillion liras, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said.

Loans provided by banks increased 10.7 percent over the same period to 12.9 trillion liras.

Revenues from interests collected from loans surged 203 percent year-on-year to 778 billion liras with interest income from consumer loans rising 98 percent. Banks’ interest income from credit cards skyrocketed 524 percent annually to 70.6 billion liras.

Despite the steep increase in loans, the share of non-performing loans in total loans declined from 1.82 percent last year to 1.49 percent.

Deposits, the biggest fund resource of the banks, increased by 4.2 percent compared with the end of 2023 to 15.5 trillion liras.

Interest payments to deposits rose by 289 percent to 777 billion liras.

Consequently, banks’ net interest income climbed 265 percent from a year ago to 946 billion liras.

Turkish lenders expanded their securities portfolio by 11.9 percent compared with the end of last year to 4.4 trillion liras.

The total shareholders' equity increased by 6.6 percent to 2.3 trillion liras, while the capital adequacy standard ratio ticked down from 18 percent to 16.96 percent.

Some 61 banks were operating in Türkiye as of the end of March, up from 54 a year earlier, with 10,873 branches across the country. The number of bank employees increased from 208,504 to 209,263.