[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s seven financial groups saw their net profits fall more than 16 percent on-year in the first half of 2016, according to the government data on Sept. 26.

They reaped a total of 3.44 trillion won (US$3.11 billion) on consolidated financial statements, down 16.2 percent from the first six months of 2015, according to the Financial Supervisory Service

It‘s largely attributable to growth in loan loss reserves with the restructuring of the shipping and shipbuilding industries under way.

NongHyup Financial Group swung to 138.5 billion won net loss from 410.4 billion-won net profits a year earlier. The ratio of NongHyup’s non-performing loans to its total lending stood at 1.81 percent, the highest among the seven bank holding companies.

Net profits of Shinhan Financial Group and KB Financial Group declined 7.4 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

In contrast, JB Financial Group posted 37.2 percent in net profits, while Hana Financial Group’s net jumped 10.4 percent.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)