Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Kbank posts record-high earnings in Q1
Kbank headquarters in central Seoul / Courtesy of Kbank
By Anna J. Park
Kbank has recorded an all-time-high quarterly net profit of 50.7 billion won ($37 million) in the first quarter of this year, the internet-only bank announced Monday.
The quarterly net profit marks a nearly five-fold increase compared to the same quarter last year when the bank posted a net profit of about 10.4 billion won.
The mobile bank attributed the record-high earnings to the bank's balanced growth in both the customer base as well as the size of the bank's deposits and loans.
Specifically, the number of Kbank customers rose to 10.3 million as of the end of the first quarter, which is up by some 800,000 from the end of last year.
The bank's deposit balance reached 23.9 trillion won, while its loan balance stood at 14.7 trillion won as of the end of the first quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, these figures represent growth of 25.7 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively.
The bank explained that its competitive interest rates and enhanced deposit product benefits have led to an increase in the deposit balance.
For instance, the bank's flagship deposit product launched last August attracted more than 1 million accounts in just five months. The bank's savings account for parking cash for the short term has also witnessed money inflow from the country's middle and upper classes, with the accounts' limit increasing from 300 million won to 1 billion won last November.
On the lending side, Kbank continued its upward trajectory, focusing on providing stable collateralized loans.
Partly thanks to the government-led refinancing loan initiatives, the internet-only bank's balance of mortgage loans on apartment complexes increased by 1 trillion won, while the balance of loans for jeonse — Korea's unique lump-sum deposit lease — increased by approximately 300 billion won.
Overall, Kbank recorded interest income of 135.7 billion won in the first quarter, which is a 31.9 percent increase, compared to 102.9 billion won logged in the same quarter last year. Non-interest income amounted to 15.7 billion won, nearly doubling from 8.1 billion won a year ago.
"Kbank's all-time-high quarterly performance is attributed to customers' recognition of the benefits and competitive interest rates offered by the bank," the digital bank's CEO Choi Woo-hyung said.
"We will further expand the customer base through product and service differentiation in both lifestyle and investment areas."