Standard Chartered Bank Korea said on the 14th that it posted 424.4 billion won in net profit for the first half of this year. It is the largest half-year result on record.
Along with strong results in wealth management (WM) and the foreign exchange derivatives institutional sector, the reversal of a 110.2 billion won provision related to a Hong Kong H-share index equity-linked security (ELS) penalty surcharge more than doubled net profit from a year earlier.
According to the financial sector on the 14th, Standard Chartered Bank Korea's consolidated net profit for the first half of 2026 was 424.4 billion won, up 103% from a year earlier. Operating profit was 408.2 billion won, up 59% from the same period a year ago.
For net interest income, despite growth in a solid volume of customer loans, a decline in the net interest margin (NIM) by 0.24 percentage points brought the figure to 609 billion won, roughly flat from a year earlier.
For non-interest income, thanks to growth in high-net-worth clients and a buoyant stock market, strength in the wealth management institutional sector and increased performance in the foreign exchange derivatives institutional sector lifted the figure to 365.6 billion won, up 159.6 billion won (78%) from 206 billion won a year earlier.
Selling and administrative expenses rose to 493 billion won, up 35.6 billion won (8%) from a year earlier, due to higher operating costs from wage and price increases. Of this, the wage increase was partially offset by labor cost savings from a special voluntary retirement carried out at the end of 2025.
As of the end of June this year, total loans stood at 44.7661 trillion won, up 1.5464 trillion won (4%) from 43.2197 trillion won at the end of June a year earlier, driven by increased funding demand from corporate finance clients. Return on assets and return on equity, supported by strong results, were 0.74% and 15.43%, up 0.28 percentage points and 7.82 percentage points, respectively, from a year earlier.
As of the end of June 2026, the BIS total capital adequacy ratio (CAR) and BIS common equity tier 1 ratio (CET1) were 17.77% and 15.65%, respectively. A Standard Chartered Bank Korea official said, "We continue to exceed supervisory requirements and are maintaining sufficient loss-absorption capacity and capital soundness."