KB Financial Group net profit hits new all-time high in 2022

KB Financial Group said Tuesday that its net profit hit an all-time high last year thanks to increased interest income.

Net profit of the major Korean banking group came to 4.41 trillion won ($3.51 billion) in 2022, up 0.1 percent from the previous year, the group said in a regulatory filing.

The group’s net profit has hit an all-time high every year since 2020.

KB Financial attributed the yearly gains to increased interest margins amid the central banks’ hawkish rate hikes.

Last month, the Bank of Korea raised the benchmark seven-day repo rate from 3.25 percent to 3.5 percent, the highest level since late 2008, to tame inflation.

KB Financial said its net interest income in 2022 jumped 18.9 percent on-year to 11.38 trillion won, while net commission income decreased 8.4 percent to 3.32 trillion won.

In the fourth quarter alone, KB Financial’s net profit came to 385.4 billion won, down 39.51 percent from a year ago, according to the regulatory filing.

The decline is largely blamed on a one-off cost of 229 billion won in compensating voluntary retirees.

In 2022, the group’s return on equity, a major gauge of profitability, came to 9.86 percent from 10.22 percent from 2021.

Net profit of KB Kookmin Bank, the flagship of KB Financial, went up 15.6 percent on-year to 2.99 trillion won in 2022.

Shares in KB Financial fell 0.36 percent to 55,500 won on the main Seoul bourse Tuesday, underperforming the broader KOSPI’s 0.55 percent gain.