KakaoBank said on the 6th that first-quarter net profit reached 187.3 billion won. That was up 36.3% from a year earlier and marked a record high on a quarterly net profit basis. The previous quarterly record was 137.4 billion won in the first quarter of last year.
According to KakaoBank, first-quarter operating revenue came to 819.3 billion won, up 4.4% from a year earlier. Interest income from loans rose 2.7% to 516.5 billion won.
Non-interest income, excluding interest income from loans, was tallied at 302.9 billion won. This was the first time non-interest income topped 300 billion won on a quarterly basis. It grew 7.5% from last year, and the share of non-interest income in total operating revenue rose to 37%.
Funds management profit and loss was tallied at 152 billion won, down 12.8 billion won from the first quarter of last year. The company said it was due to reduced revenue on investment funds amid rising market interest rates.
As of the end of the first quarter, the number of customers was 27.27 million, up 570,000 in three months. With increased customer activity, monthly active users (MAU) and weekly active users (WAU) in the first quarter were tallied at 20.32 million and 15.02 million, respectively.
The deposit balance at the end of the first quarter was 69.356 trillion won, up more than 1 trillion won in three months. While time savings balances fell on a buoyant domestic stock market, demand deposits and time deposits grew, expanding the overall deposit base.
The loan balance at the end of the first quarter was 47.699 trillion won, up 7.7% from a year earlier.
KakaoBank supplied 450 billion won in mid- to low-credit loans in the first quarter. In the first quarter, the share of new originations of mid- to low-credit loans was 45.6%, and the share in outstanding balances was 32.3%, exceeding targets.
The delinquency rate in the first quarter was 0.51%, up 0.01 percentage point from a year earlier. The ratios of substandard-and-below loans (0.53%) and credit cost (0.55%) held at the same levels as the previous quarter.
Kwon Tae-hun, KakaoBank chief financial officer (CFO), said, "We expanded the shareholder return ratio for the 2025 settlement of account dividends to 45.6%, and we plan to raise the shareholder return ratio to 50% through the 2026 fiscal year." He added, "Starting with the 2027 fiscal year, we intend to carry out our shareholder return policy based on dividends per share (DPS)."