November 26, 2024

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Toss Bank logo (Toss Bank)

Toss Bank, a Korean internet-only bank, saw its first quarterly profit in the third quarter.
The company on Thursday announced it logged a net profit of 8.6 billion won ($6.65 million) in the third quarter, shifting from a net loss of 10.5 billion won the previous term.
This marked the first time the company posted a quarterly profit since its launch in October 2021.
The company attributed the growth to increased interest revenue during the pandemic when mobile banking services saw an influx of new customers.
The service's net interest revenue also rose to 391.8 billion won in the third quarter, surging by 60.7 percent from the second and more than tripling from 116.2 billion won logged a year ago.
The net interest margin, a key barometer of profitability, stood at 2.06 percent in the term, up by 0.14 percentage point from the previous quarter and by 1.52 percentage points from the same period last year.
Meanwhile, Toss Bank's loan balance amounted to 11.18 trillion won and the deposit loan, 22.68 trillion won.
The lender said its mid-to-low credit loans shrunk to 34.5 percent by 4 percentage points from the end of the second quarter, its high-rate products saw a slight increase, resulting in the drop of its delinquency rate -- to 1.18 percent in the third quarter from 1.56 percent in the second.
The number of clients also increased to 7.99 million in the third quarter, up by 1.1 million from the second quarter.
If the customer base continues to expand at a similar pace, Toss Bank anticipated that it will top 10 million in the first half of next year.
With the latest turnaround and an expansion in mortgage loans, the bank expected a further upward trend for a while.
"The past two years have been a time for the company to turn into a completely new bank, setting the foundations as a first sector financial service that centers around the clients," a Toss Bank official said Thursday.
By Choi Ji-won  (jwc@heraldcorp.com)