Seoul: KB Financial Group Inc. announced a significant increase in its third-quarter net income, reporting an 18 percent rise from the previous year, largely driven by higher interest and commission income. In the July-September period, the company's net profit reached 1.61 trillion won (approximately US$1.17 billion), surpassing the previous year's profit of 1.37 trillion won, as detailed in a regulatory filing. According to Yonhap News Agency, KB Financial's operating income for the quarter saw an increase to 2.36 trillion won from 1.95 trillion won a year earlier. However, the company's revenue experienced a 16.7 percent year-on-year decline, totaling 15.49 trillion won for the quarter. Despite the revenue drop, the earnings exceeded market expectations, with analysts having estimated an average net profit of 1.54 trillion won, based on a survey conducted by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data arm of Yonhap News Agency. Throughout the first three quarters of the year, KB Financial accumulated a net profit of 4.39 trillion won. The financial holding company attributed the third-quarter growth to an increase in interest income and a significant rise in commission income. Specifically, the interest income for the quarter reached 3.17 trillion won, marking a 1.3 percent increase from the previous year, while non-interest income surged by 61 percent year-on-year to 1.34 trillion won. Despite the growth in income, the group's net interest margin, which measures the difference between interest received and interest paid, decreased slightly to 1.95 percent, down by 0.14 basis points from the previous year. In terms of financial resilience, KB Financial reported setting aside approximately 553 billion won in reserves, with total loan-loss reserves reaching 981 billion won. Additionally, KB Kookmin Bank, a subsidiary of KB Financial, reported a net profit of 1.11 trillion won in the third quarter, reflecting an 11.5 percent increase from the same period last year.
