Turkey's banking sector registered a net profit of TL 4.3 billion ($594 million) in January, the banking watchdog revealed Monday.

Total assets of the sector rose 33% on an annual basis, surpassing TL 6 trillion Turkish ($829 billion) in the month, said a report by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

Loans, the biggest sub-category of assets, were around TL 3.6 trillion ($487.5 billion), posting a 32% rise year-on-year.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey, the largest liabilities item, totaled over TL 3.4 trillion ($469 billion), up 32% from a year ago.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio-the higher the better-was 18.37% by the end of this January, improved from 18.42% in January 2020.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans, the lower the better, was 4.08% in the same period, versus 5.34%.

As of January, a total of 52 state/private/foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks, and development and investment banks – operated in Turkey.

The sector had 203,060 employees serving through 11,186 branches both in Turkey and abroad with 49,130 ATMs.