Lotte Card said on the 6th that first-quarter operating profit was 41.5 billion won, up 201.4% from 13.8 billion won a year earlier.
Lotte Card said it built a portfolio focused on prime customers this year to establish a stable revenue base and delivered an improvement in first-quarter operating profit through expense efficiencies such as continued strengthening of risk management and lower credit loss expense. The number of members in the first quarter also began to recover in January and held at 9,556,000, the same as a year earlier.
Risk management metrics also improved. As of the end of Mar., the arrears transfer rate—the ratio at which performing loans transfer to loans overdue by two months or more—was 0.318%, returning to the level before the Legoland incident (0.311%).
Market share is also being maintained. According to first-quarter results for personal and corporate credit purchases at the eight standalone card companies this year by the Credit Finance Association, Lotte Card's market share was 10.6%, keeping it in double digits following the previous quarter (11.0%).
Lotte Card plans to expand its customer base by diversifying sales channels and continuously launching new products, while pursuing preemptive asset soundness management, diversification of funding structure, and expense efficiency to sustain mid- to long-term profitability recovery and structural improvements.