ISTANBUL- Turkish watchlist loans increased by 23% and stood at 370 billion lira ($44.68 billion) at the end of last year, Turkey's banking association (TBB) said on Thursday.

In a statement, the association said the watchlist loans constituted 10% of the total loans which stood at 3.6 trillion lira in the same period.

Restructured loans constituted 5.7% of the total loans and stood at 204 billion lira at end-2020, it also said.

A BDDK banking watchdog move to lengthen the grace period for reclassifying troubled loans as NPLs was implemented last year, aimed at protecting companies impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.

Non-performing loans (NPL) rose by only 1% compared to end-2019 to 141 billion lira, the association said.

Separately, Turkey's banking watchdog announced last week that the NPL ratio of the total loans in the banking sector stood at 3.79% at the end of March.

($1 = 8.2820 liras)

(Reporting by Ebru Tuncay Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun Editing by Daren Butler) ((ezgi.erkoyun@thomsonreuters.com; +90-212-350 7051; Reuters Messaging: ezgi.erkoyun.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;))