K Bank's Q3 Net Income Rises 119% Year on Year to KRW 42.1 Billion

Expanded customer base and growth in lending to individual business owners
Loan balance surpasses KRW 20 trillion for the first time

K Bank (CEO Choi Woohyung) said on October 30 that its net income for the third quarter of this year reached KRW 42.1 billion, up 119% from the same period last year. Growth in its customer base and strong loan growth, led by lending to individual business owners, boosted interest income and drove a significant increase in profit from a year earlier.

At the end of the third quarter, deposits totaled KRW 29.39 trillion, down 3% from the same period last year but up about 10% from the previous quarter.

Loans totaled KRW 20.58 trillion, surpassing KRW 20 trillion for the first time. A sharp increase in corporate lending helped improve performance despite the financial authorities' continued efforts to manage household debt. Corporate loans rose 89% from the same period last year, expanding their share of total loans to 17.7%.

K Bank said that through the third quarter of this year, it accounted for 33.1% of the net increase in loans to individual business owners across domestic banks. Since launching its guaranteed loan products in 2022, the bank has supplied a cumulative total of more than KRW 5 trillion in loans to individual business owners. It is accelerating its expansion of corporate finance, having provided KRW 2.1 trillion in such loans through the third quarter alone this year.

Asset quality has also remained stable: the delinquency rate on loans to individual business owners stood at 0.55%, supported by growth focused on real estate-secured and guaranteed loans.

K Bank's interest income for the third quarter was KRW 130.1 billion, up about 16.7% from the same period last year. Growth in loan assets, driven by strong growth in lending to individual business owners, fueled the increase in interest income. Net interest margin (NIM) also rose to 1.60% on a cumulative basis, from 1.38% in the same period last year, despite profitability pressures such as higher deposit funding costs and lower returns on investments.

Non-interest income reached KRW 26.9 billion, up 28.3% from the same period last year, supported by gains from loan receivables sales and increased securities-related income.

However, cumulative net income for the first three quarters fell 1.3% to KRW 102.1 billion from KRW 103.4 billion a year earlier, reflecting the sharp drop in cumulative net income in the first half of this year. Gains from loan receivables sales, which had driven performance in the first half of last year, fell sharply in the first half of this year, causing cumulative first-half net income to decline 28.7% from the same period last year.

The delinquency rate edged up to 0.62% from 0.60% in the previous quarter, while the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose slightly to 0.60% from 0.59%. The cost of credit ratio for the third quarter was 1.12%, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarter, partly reflecting the increased credit loss burden from rising interest rates.

At the end of the third quarter, K Bank maintained a strong capital position, with a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) capital adequacy ratio of 19.59%.

K Bank plans to continue expanding lending to individual business owners in the fourth quarter while strengthening the competitiveness of its products and services through partnerships with external platforms.

A K Bank official said, "Despite the highly volatile external environment, we achieved strong growth, with net income up 119% from the same period last year, underpinned by steady growth in lending to individual business owners." The official added, "We will continue to broaden our customer base and secure new growth drivers by expanding in the corporate finance market and partnering with external platforms."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.