[THE INVESTOR] KB Financial Group reported on Oct. 20 that it more than met the market expectations with a 564.4 billion won (US$503.75 million) net profit in the third quarter.

The net profit between January and September reached 1.69 trillion won, a 25.1 percent hike on-year.

Despite the lower base rate since June, it succeeded in offsetting it by lowering the interest expense by 14.1 percent. Its total assets increased by 9.2 percent from the end of 2015 to 489.8 trillion won as of the end of third quarter.



The group’s operating profit in the third quarter rose 33.27 percent to 721.4 billion won from the same period last year.

Its flagship Kookmin Bank’s asset grew 5.9 percent to 343.7 trillion won and net profit of 1.17 trillion won in the January-September period.

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)