Industrial Bank of Korea said Monday that its outstanding loans to small and medium-sized enterprises reached 270 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 8.1 trillion won ($5.52 billion) from the end of last year.
Net profit for the period on a consolidated basis fell 4.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.44 trillion won. Gains in interest income — driven by growth in interest-earning assets and efforts to cut funding costs — and improved securities-related earnings were offset by a wider foreign exchange valuation loss stemming from a sharp rise in the exchange rate and an increase in loan-loss provisions.
Interest income for the first half came to 4.08 trillion won, up 7.2 percent from the same period a year earlier. Non-interest income totaled 243.9 billion won, down 49.8 percent over the same period.
The credit cost ratio rose 0.05 percentage points from a year earlier to 0.46 percent. The substandard-and-below loan ratio fell 0.01 percentage points from the end of last year to 1.27 percent.
The bank will pay a quarterly dividend with the end of this month as the record date. The dividend per share is 210 won.
"Through an organizational restructuring in the second half, we have secured the momentum to strengthen productive financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises and drive the AI transformation," a bank official said. "We also plan to further enhance shareholder returns through this first-ever quarterly dividend."
hyuk@heraldcorp.com
