Turkish banks saw a net profit of TL 63.2 billion ($4.3 billion) in March, the country's banking watchdog said on Friday.

Total assets of the Turkish banking sector reached TL 10.2 trillion ($695.4 billion) last month, up from 4.9 trillion Turkish liras a year ago, according to the latest data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

Loans, the largest sub-category of assets, amounted to 5.5 trillion Turkish liras with a 90% year-over-year rise.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in Turkey – the largest liabilities item – reached nearly TL 6 trillion, more than doubling from the same month last year.

Pointing to lenders' minimum capital requirements, the banking sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 20.39% by the end of last month, up from 18% March 2021.

The ratio of non-performing loans to total cash loans – the lower the better – was 2.86%, down from 3.79% a year ago.

As of the end of March, a total of 54 state, private and foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation (Islamic) banks and development and investment banks – were operating in Turkey.

The sector had 201,597 employees serving through 11,104 branches both in Turkey and abroad, along with 48,820 ATMs.