SEOUL– Toss Bank, one of the country’s internet-only banking services, on Wednesday said it suffered a massive loss in the first half of the year due to increased loan-loss reserves and other costs.
Net loss came to 124.3 billion won (US$92.7 million) on a consolidated basis in the January-June period, the company said in a statement.
Toss Bank launched in October last year as the third and last comer to the online-only banking sector.
Toss Bank attributed the first-half loss to increased costs. In the six-month period, the bank set aside 67.3 billion won as loan-loss reserves.
Most major lenders in South Korea increased such provisions this year amid a slowdown in economic growth in the face of the Bank of Korea’s aggressive interest rates hikes.
As of end-August, the number of Toss Bank customers had come to 4.4 million.
Source: Yonhap News Agency