Ziraat Bank seeks to strengthen its financial structure through sustainable growth, profitability, and productivity. In 2015 the Bank continued to reinforce its equity-compatible balance sheet structure through the asset & liability management strategies that it adhered to and it remained on course in terms of capital adequacy, profitability, and productivity.

As of year-end 2015 the Bank’s total assets amounted to TL 302.8 billion and its total equity to TL 31.5 billion. Importance was again given to supporting equity through sustainable profitability: total equity accounted for about a 10.4% share of the Bank’s balance sheet.

Recognizing the key importance of sustainable profitability in equity management, the Bank increased its net profit by 27.5% in 2015 to TL 5.2 billion. As of year-end, Ziraat Bank’s return on equity and return on assets ratios were 17.3% and 1.8% respectively while its capital adequacy ratio was 15.08%.

In keeping with the Ziraat Bank Customer Service Model, the Bank focuses on providing financial solutions to all real-sector actors, but especially to those in agriculture, with the result that such lendings are making up a steadily increasing share of the total. As a result of this customer-weighted balance sheet management strategy, the total volume of the Bank’s cash lendings increased by 32% to TL 186.8 billion and corresponded to 62% of total assets while the share of marketable securities, which was 26% in 2014, was down to 21% in 2015. The Bank intends to adhere to this credit-driven growth strategy in the years ahead as well. Ziraat Bank’s 1.7% NPL ratio is well below the sectoral average. The Bank’s consistent ability to maintain a below-average NPL ratio without selling off any of its assets is an indication of the superior quality of its asset structure.

In line with Ziraat Bank’s approach of contributing to the country’s overall level of saving and of having recourse to broadly-based, low-cost resources, total deposits reached TL 186.5 billion, a performance that maintained the Bank’s standing as the sector’s leading deposit-taker in 2015. Deposits and non-deposit resources account for 61.6% and 22.4% shares respectively of total liabilities. In keeping with the Bank’s ongoing efforts to diversify and deepen its sources of funding, in 2015 Ziraat Bank continued to seek out and tap alternatives such as international agency and financial institution lines of credit, post-financing, and bank bond & bill issues.

Owing to the steady rise in the Bank’s lending, interest income once again contributed the biggest share of Ziraat Bank’s total revenues and amounted to TL 22.1 billion. In the twelve months to end-2015, the ratio of interest received to total income increased from 70% to 76%. Efforts also continued to be made to improve the Bank’s net interest margin with the result that there was a 22% increase in Ziraat Bank’s net interest income in 2015. That performance was further supported by efforts to boost non-interest income, which was up by a nearly identical 21% last year.