Pepper Savings Bank Posts First Quarter Loss This Year... Delinquency Rate Also Doubles

Net loss of 25.3 billion KRW... 35.4 billion KRW decrease YoY
"Impact of rising procurement interest rates and provision accumulation"

Pepper Savings Bank recorded a loss in the first quarter of this year. Its soundness also deteriorated, with the delinquency rate more than doubling.

Pepper Savings Bank announced on the 31st that its net loss for the first quarter of this year was 25.3 billion KRW. This marked a decrease of 35.4 billion KRW compared to the first quarter of last year (10.1 billion KRW), turning into a deficit.

A representative of Pepper Savings Bank explained, "At the end of last year, funding costs rose significantly, and due to the real estate market slump, we set aside a large amount of loan loss provisions for mortgage loans, which reduced profitability." The bank's loan loss provisions increased by more than 100 billion KRW, from 175.6 billion KRW in the first quarter of last year to 283.7 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year.

Soundness indicators also worsened. Pepper Savings Bank's delinquency rate rose by 3.4 percentage points, from 2.42% in the first quarter of last year to 5.82% in the first quarter of this year. The ratio of non-performing loans, which refers to the proportion of loans overdue by more than three months in total credit, also jumped from 2.82% to 6.61% during the same period.

The liquidity ratio, which shows a financial institution's short-term debt payment capacity, decreased from 199.66% to 153.21%. A lower liquidity ratio means reduced payment capacity. The BIS (Bank for International Settlements) standard capital adequacy ratio was 10.81% in the first quarter of this year, similar to 10.44% a year ago. The statutory regulatory minimum for the BIS capital adequacy ratio is 8% or higher.

Pepper Savings Bank's total assets in the first quarter of this year were 6.0347 trillion KRW, a decrease of 219 billion KRW compared to 6.2537 trillion KRW in the same period last year.

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