Woori Bank, a major South Korean lender, said Thursday it swung to a net profit in 2014 from a year earlier on a tumble in loan loss reserves.
  

Net profit came in at 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion) last year, a sharp turnaround from a 537.7 billion won loss a year earlier, the lender said in a regulatory filing.
  

Woori Bank attributed the turnaround to a plunge in reserves against bad loans and a tax refund of 604.3 billion won.
  

For the fourth quarter, however, it posted a 163 billion won net loss, it added.
  

Woori Bank's assets totaled 291.9 trillion won as of end-2014, up 9.9 trillion won from a year earlier.
  

Net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, was 1.51 percent last year, down 0.04 percentage point from the previous year.
  

Woori Bank absorbed its former holding company, Woori Finance Holdings Co., in November as part of a government-led privatization plan. (Yonhap)