South Korea’s KB Financial Group said Thursday its net profit in the January-September period came to 3.7 trillion won ($3.14 billion), eclipsing last year’s annual net profit.

KB’s net profit in the first nine months of the year jumped 31.1 percent on-year and surpassed last year’s annual net profit of 3.4 trillion won, hitting a record high for the cited period. Onlookers said that the banking group is likely to see a record high for fiscal 2021 as well, likely surpassing 4 trillion won.

In terms of quarterly performance, KB’s net profit for the third quarter gained 7.8 percent on-quarter to 1.2 trillion won.

The robust net profit has been driven by an increase in revenue from loan interest rates, as the Bank of Korea recently ended its 15 months of low interest rates amid the pandemic, industry watchers said. It is also due to a successful buildup of mergers and acquisitions in recent years, with acquisitions of insurers and brokerages finally paying off, they added.

By units, KB Kookmin Bank, the group’s flagship banking unit, posted a net profit of 2.2 trillion won in the January-September period, gaining 16.9 percent on-year and working as a key catalyst behind the latest performance.

Its brokerage unit KB Securities’ net profit for the first nine months of the year gained 16.9 percent on-year to 2.2 trillion won.

KB Financial Group is currently South Korea’s No. 1 banking group by assets, holding 650.5 trillion won as of end-September.

(mkjung@heraldcorp.com)