Woori Bank‘s net profit jumps 46.4% in H1

Woori Bank, a major South Korean commercial lender, said Thursday its net profit for the first six months of this year jumped 46.4 percent on year, thanks to a solid gain in both interest and non-interest income.

Net profit jumped to 1.09 trillion won ($971 million) in the January-June period on a consolidated basis, the lender said in a statement.

It marked the biggest six-month profit since 2011, the lender said.

For the second-quarter of this year, Woori Bank's net profit soared 50.1 percent on year to 460.8 billion won. The bank attributed the rise to decreased loan-loss provisions and a rise in interest income.

Woori Bank's interest income came to 2.5 trillion won for the first half, up 62.3 billion won from a year earlier, it said.

The bank's net interest margin, a key barometer of profitability, stood at 1.45 percent in the second quarter, up 0.03 percentage point from the previous quarter. (Yonhap)