The growth rate in loans, one of the strongest items in the Turkish economy, continued in 2021. With the development of the fintech ecosystem, it is expected that personal loans, which have been available to banks until now, will turn to digital platforms as legal regulations come into force. Especially with the latest developments in the field of micro loans, the determination of the scope of the digital banking license and its entry into law, fintech platforms will also be included in the distribution of loans.
Loans provided by the banking system in Turkey are classified into 3 main categories: consumer loans, individual loans (credit cards), commercial loans and other loans. In Turkey, loans offered by banks to their customers can be followed through weekly reports announced by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. Apart from BRSA, the Central Bank also reports the loans provided by the banking sector on a weekly basis.
The lion’s share of personal loans is in consumer loans.
Roughly speaking, 4 out of 5 of the loans offered to banking customers in the Turkish economy are commercial loans, while 1 in 5 consists of individual loans. In short, the majority of loans are generally used by commercial enterprises. In personal loans, vehicle, housing and consumer loans constitute 75 percent of the pie, while credit cards can be defined as 25 percent.
Now, let’s detail the distribution of loans with numbers as of the end of 2021…
As of the end of 2021, the total credit pool in Turkey is at the level of 4 trillion 899 million liras. 2 trillion 833 billion lira of these loans are Turkish Lira loans; 2 trillion 66 billion lira consists of loans in foreign currency.
When we look at the types of loans, 776 billion liras are offered to consumers as consumer loans and 210 billion liras are offered to consumers as credit cards. Commercial loans: 3 trillion 912 billion liras; Commercial credit cards are at the level of 800 billion liras. The total size of loans given to SMEs among commercial loans is at the level of 1 trillion 77 billion liras.
Consumer loans grew faster than total consumer loans in the last two years
As of the end of 2021, the lion’s share of personal loans is in consumer loans. Of the total consumer loans of 776 billion liras, 464 billion liras are provided to consumers as consumer loans. After consumer loans, the most preferred are housing loans with 299 billion liras. The total amount of vehicle loans is at the level of 13 billion liras. There is an amount of 210 billion liras in credit cards under the same heading.
The consumer loan pool, which completed 2021 at 776 billion lira, was at the level of 675 billion lira at the end of 2020. Consumer loans, which were 464 billion lira at the end of 2021, were 385 billion lira at the end of 2020. When we look at the same figures from the previous year window of 2019; total consumer loans volume is 464 billion lira; Consumer loans stand at 258 billion liras.
The percentage change in these items between 2019 and 2021 is 66 percent in total consumer loans; and 79 percent in consumer loans. In other words, while the share of consumer loans in total consumer loans was 55 percent in 2019, this rate approached 60 percent in 2019.
Weekly course of total consumer loans in 2021:
Weekly course of consumer loans in 2021:
GRAPHIC SOURCE: BRSA Weekly Banking Sector Data
