S. Korean banks' net income from overseas businesses down in 2022

South Korean banks' net income from overseas businesses decreased in 2022 from a year earlier on increased bad debt expenses, data showed Wednesday.

The net income of domestic banks' overseas businesses sank to $991 million from $1.17 billion on-year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The FSS attributed the decrease to a rise in banks' bad debt expenses intended to prepare for bad loans amid global rate hikes.

The banks' interest income rose 13.7 percent on-year to $3.4 billion, but their non-interest income fell 9.4 percent on-year to $416 million.

Their return on assets, which shows a company's profitability in relation to its total assets, declined to 0.49 percent last year from 0.64 percent a year ago.

The ratio of loans classified as substandard or below of banks' overseas businesses stood at 1.5 percent as of end-2022, down 0.38 percentage point from a year earlier.

As of last year, domestic banks were operating a total of 207 subsidiaries, local branches and offices in 40 countries around the world, according to preliminary data from the FSS.

Nearly 70 percent of overseas operations were concentrated in Asia. The Americas accounted for 14 percent of the businesses and Europe took up 12.6 percent.

The banks net profit increased in the United States, Japan, Britain and Vietnam, but decreased in China and Hong Kong. They posted a net loss in Indonesia. (Yonhap)