KakaoBank sees record quarterly net profit

South Korea's KakaoBank Corp. enjoyed a record quarterly net profit of 111.2 billion won ($81 million) for the first quarter of this year, the company said on Wednesday.

The bank's net profit rose 9.1% year over year. 

It jumped 35.5 billion won (46.9%) from the fourth quarter of 2023 (75.7 billion won).

KakaoBank's strong performance to stable growth in both loans and deposits attributed to its strong performance. 

Loan balances rose 2.6 trillion won (6.7%) to 41.3 trillion won by the end of March, compared to 38.7 trillion won by the end of December 2023.

Mortgage loans were a particular driver, surging from 2.7 trillion won (29.7%) to 11.8 trillion won during the same period.

However, unsecured personal loans decreased slightly from 16.4 trillion won to 16 trillion won.

Deposit balances also saw significant growth, reaching 53 trillion won at the end of the first quarter, up 5.8 trillion won (12.3%) from the end of last year.

Write to Eui-Jin Jeong at justin@hankyung.com