It has become something of a mantra that the Turkish banking sector has been so well managed and regulated over the past decade that it managed to sail through the successive global economic and eurozone crises that have sent banks tumbling across the Western world. Not only had the adverse effects of this time been limited, but indeed Turkish banks were a picture of rude health; enjoying growing profits and an expanding customer base.
As recently as the first six months of this year, the sector boasted a healthy bottom line, reporting half-year profits of Tl13.9bn ($6.96bn), up 16.4% on the same period in 2012. Those figures include healthy profit rises for Turkey's big players, with Isbank posting half-yearly profits of Tl1.9bn (up 14.5%), Garanti reporting Tl1.8bn (up 19.6%), Akbank Tl1.7bn (up 63.4%) and TEB and Yapi Kredi reporting profit rises of 38.5% and 35.2%, respectively.
