Turkey's banking sector posted a net profit of TL 7.9 billion in January, the country's banking watchdog said Monday.

The figure jumped 147% year-on-year, from TL 3.2 billion in January a year earlier, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) data showed.

Total assets of the sector totaled TL 4.53 trillion, up 17.3% year-on-year. Total banking sector loans – the largest sub-category of assets – soared 13% year-on-year to hit TL 2.68 trillion in the said period.

On the liabilities side, deposits held at lenders in the country amounted to TL 2.59 trillion, up 26.3% during the same period. The data showed that the sector's regulatory capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio – the higher the better – was 18.42% this January compared to 17.12% in January 2019.

Measuring the health of loans, the ratio of non-performing loans-to-total cash loans – the lower the better – stood at 5.34% in the month, up from 4.03% a year earlier.

A total of 50 state, private and foreign lenders – including deposit banks, participation banks and development and investment banks – engaged in banking activities in Turkey as of January.

The sector employs 207,517 people at 11,563 domestic and foreign branches.

The sector’s net profit in 2019 totaled TL 49.8 billion, down 7% last year compared with TL 53.52 billion in 2018, according to BDDK data. The total assets of the sector hit TL 4.49 trillion as of the end of 2019, a 16.2% year-on-year surge.