Istanbul holds most of Türkiye’s savings, data shows

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s total bank deposits reached 24.8 trillion Turkish Liras ($588 billion) by the third quarter of 2024, rising 39.3 percent from a year earlier, according to official figures from the country’s main financial watchdog, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK).

The new data reveal where people and companies in Türkiye keep their money, showing a sharp gap between big cities and smaller provinces.

The BDDK regularly publishes data on loans, deposits and other indicators that reflect the overall health of the Turkish economy.

The three largest cities — Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir — held the majority of the country’s savings, with combined deposits of 15.1 trillion liras, equal to more than 60 percent of the national total.

Istanbul led with 10.5 trillion liras, followed by the capital Ankara with 3.3 trillion liras and the western province of İzmir with 1.27 trillion liras.

Among other major cities, the southwestern province of Antalya reached 792.8 billion liras and the northwestern province of Bursa 562.9 billion liras in deposits.

At the other end of the list, the northeastern province of Bayburt had the lowest total with 5.5 billion, despite a nearly 39 percent increase from last year. It was followed by Ardahan (7.7 billion liras), Hakkari (8.2 billion liras), Kilis (8.4 billion liras) and Gümüşhane (12.6 billion liras).

Some smaller provinces, however, saw the fastest growth in savings. The Black Sea province of Rize recorded the annual rise with 62.5 percent, followed by Bitlis (57.3 percent), Elazığ (51.2 percent), Kırıkkale (50.4 percent) and Çanakkale (50.3 percent).

By contrast, the southern province of Kahramanmaraş posted the smallest increase at 15.1 percent, with its total deposits climbing from 82.9 billion to 95.4 billion liras. The northern province of Kastamonu (17.8 percent) and the southeastern province of Hakkari (22.8 percent) also recorded relatively slow growth.

Deposits held by people and companies based abroad amounted to 1.61 trillion liras in the first nine months of the year.