SC Jeil Bank, 3Q Net Profit 106.6 Billion KRW... Up 34% YoY

Impact of Increased Interest Income and Cost Reduction

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] SC First Bank recovered its net profit to the 100 billion KRW level in the third quarter of this year, driven by growth in interest income.

SC First Bank announced on the 14th that it recorded a net profit of 106.6 billion KRW in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 34.3% compared to the same period last year. It nearly doubled compared to the previous quarter, returning to the 100 billion KRW net profit range. Operating profit also increased by 21.0% compared to the third quarter of last year, reaching 399.1 billion KRW. This was attributed to growth in interest income and the cost-saving effects from large-scale special retirements carried out at the end of last year.

Interest income amounted to 310.5 billion KRW, up 25.9% from the same period last year. The steady strengthening of the business base increased loan assets, and improvements in the net interest margin (NIM) had a positive effect. However, non-interest income was 73.7 billion KRW, down 2.9% from the same period last year. This was due to a slowdown in the wealth management (WM) business amid difficult market conditions and increased losses from the disposal of bonds and other securities caused by the sharp rise in interest rates.

Regarding expenses, the impact of the special retirement conducted in October last year materialized as a reduction in personnel expenses from this year, resulting in a 7.5% decrease to 628.3 billion KRW compared to 678.9 billion KRW in the same period last year. The provision for loan losses was 71.9 billion KRW, an increase of 61.4 billion KRW compared to the same period last year. This was due to proactive additional provisions in anticipation of economic downturns and increased derivative valuation provisions caused by expanded market volatility.

The return on assets (ROA) was 0.43%, improving by 0.02 percentage points compared to the same period last year, and the return on equity (ROE) was 8.39%, up 1.20 percentage points from the same period last year. The ratio of non-performing loans and the delinquency rate improved by 0.02 percentage points each compared to the same period last year, recording 0.19% and 0.09%, respectively.

As of the end of the third quarter, SC First Bank's asset size was 115.8547 trillion KRW, an increase of 27% (24.6416 trillion KRW) compared to the same period last year. The main factor was the increase in assets related to derivatives due to expanded market volatility. The Basel III (BIS) capital adequacy ratio and Tier 1 capital ratio were 14.83% and 12.33%, respectively.

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