Banks' Q1 net profit jumps on KDB's one-off gains

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korean banks saw their first-quarter earnings jump 71 percent from a year earlier due to one-off gains from state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB), data showed Monday.

The combined net profit stood at 5.5 trillion won (US$4.8 billion) for the January-March period, compared with a profit of 3.2 trillion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a statement.

In the first quarter, the KDB reported an unusually high net profit of 1.4 trillion won, thanks to stock investments and dividend income, the FSS said.

Preliminary interest income for the first quarter stood at 10.8 trillion won, up 700 billion won from a year earlier.

The average net interest margin of the banks, a key barometer of profitability, stood at 1.43 percent for the first quarter, up 0.05 percentage point from a year ago.

kdh@yna.co.kr
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