This file photo, taken on Aug. 5, 2021, shows KakaoBank Corp.’s logo at its headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — KakaoBank Corp., a major South Korean internet-only bank, said Wednesday its 2021 earnings jumped about 80 percent from a year earlier thanks to strong interest income from loans and improved profitability.
Net income amounted to 204.12 billion won (US$170.6 million) last year, up 79.6 percent from a net profit of 167.9 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit more than doubled over the cited period to 256.94 billion, and sales also expanded 32.4 percent on-year to 1.06 trillion won.
KakaoBank attributed the strong earnings to increased profit from making loans and the overall improvement in profitability.
Its outstanding credit stood at 25.86 trillion won at the end of last year, up 5.55 trillion won from a year earlier. The number of its customers increased by 2.55 million to 17.99 million, the company said.
The company saw deposits had grown 6.49 trillion won on-year to about 30.03 trillion won as of end-December.
In the fourth quarter of last year, KakaoBank also posted a net profit of 36.18 billion won, up 30.3 percent from a year earlier.
KakaoBank and other internet-only banks are basking in marked growth, as customers tend to prefer banking through mobile phones rather than visiting offline branches, a trend that has become more entrenched during the pandemic.
(Yonhap)
