Major South Korean financial holding firm Shinhan Financial Group Co. said Thursday its net profit edged up 0.2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.
Net profit for the three months ended in March came to 1.38 trillion won (US$1.04 billion), up 3.1 billion won from the same period of last year, the financial group said in a statement.
Shinhan Financial said it posted 2.21 trillion won in operating profit for the first quarter, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier.
"We maintained a stable performance through the improvement in non-interest income and effective cost management, though interest income fell 10 percent due to a decline in the net interest margin" of its flagship Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Financial said.
Shinhan Bank's net interest margin (NIM), or the difference between interest paid and interest received, came to 1.59 percent as of end-March, compared with 1.67 percent from the end of December.
Shinhan Financial said its interest income rose 2 percent on-year to 2.5 trillion won in the first quarter, while non-interest income jumped 17 percent on-year to 1.03 trillion won.
Shinhan Bank's net profit rose 7.9 percent on-year to 931.5 billion won in the first quarter.
Source: Yonhap News Agency