KB News Desk
Brokerage gains drive record profits as NH stays ahead of Woori
South Korea’s five largest financial groups posted a record 13.12 trillion won ($8.97 billion) in combined first-half net income, marking the first time the total topped 13 trillion won, as a stock market rally boosted brokerage and asset management fees.
Combined profit rose 9.7 percent from a year earlier, according to filings released Thursday and Friday. KB Financial Group led with 3.88 trillion won, followed by Shinhan Financial Group at 3.44 trillion won and Hana Financial Group at 2.4 trillion won. NH NongHyup Financial Group posted 1.78 trillion won, ahead of Woori Financial Group’s 1.61 trillion won.
KB, Shinhan, Hana and NH each posted record first-half earnings.
NH extended its lead over Woori for a second straight first half, widening the gap to 170.1 billion won from 77.4 billion won a year earlier. The two have traded places since 2023, with Woori edging NH by just 1.6 billion won in 2024 before NH moved back ahead the following year.
NH Investment & Securities more than doubled its net profit to 965.2 billion won, the highest among the brokerages, while KB Securities posted a 135 percent jump to 796.3 billion won. Profit at Shinhan Securities and Hana Securities climbed 123.1 percent and 155.7 percent, respectively.
The surge in trading activity, alongside growth in assets under management, drove a sharp increase in fee income. Net fees and commissions rose 71.2 percent at NH, 50.6 percent at KB and 37.7 percent at Hana, supported by wealth management, brokerage and investment banking businesses.
KB led on both scale and diversification. Its first-half net income rose 13.1 percent, with nonbank affiliates contributing 44 percent of group earnings and KB Securities alone accounting for 21 percent. Return on equity reached 14.09 percent, while its common equity tier 1 ratio stood at 13.74 percent, the highest among the four listed groups.
Shinhan posted a similar 13.3 percent increase in profit, helped by gains in both interest and noninterest income. Noninterest income rose 19.7 percent, while Shinhan Bank’s net interest margin edged up to 1.61 percent in the second quarter. Stronger earnings from securities and asset management lifted the nonbank share of group profit to 35 percent.
Hana’s profit rose a more modest 4.4 percent after absorbing one-off charges tied to a corporate rehabilitation case, foreign-exchange losses and weaker insurance earnings. Credit costs remained contained at 0.29 percent, while higher fee income helped offset those pressures.
Woori posted the sharpest quarter-on-quarter rebound. Second-quarter net income surged 66 percent to 1 trillion won, restoring quarterly profit to above that threshold. Its first-half net operating revenue reached a record 5.72 trillion won, while the nonbank contribution to earnings climbed to 22.3 percent from 6.9 percent a year earlier, largely reflecting the addition of insurance operations.
NH’s record group profit, by contrast, masked weaker results at its core banking and insurance units. NH NongHyup Bank’s first-half net income fell 2.1 percent to 1.16 trillion won as securities-related gains declined and credit provisions increased.
Woori Bank, with 1.37 trillion won in first-half profit, reclaimed its lead after falling behind NH NongHyup Bank in the first quarter for the first time in about five years. One-off provisions and early-retirement costs had weighed on Woori’s first-quarter earnings before the bank rebounded in the second quarter.
Stronger earnings also gave the four listed groups more room to return capital to shareholders.
KB expects total shareholder returns to reach about 3.7 trillion won this year after announcing an additional 700 billion won share buyback and cancellation for the second half. Shinhan set out a payout plan of at least 2.8 trillion won and approved a further 700 billion won buyback.
Hana unveiled a “Value Up 2.0” plan that raised its return-on-equity target to 12 percent from the previous 10 percent, set a shareholder return ratio of at least 50 percent and earmarked capital above a 13 percent CET1 ratio for potential payouts.
Woori lifted its annual buyback and cancellation plan to a record 350 billion won, more than double last year’s level.
