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| KakaoBank's logo is seen in this file photo. Yonhap |
Leading internet-only lender posts record annual revenue for 2022
By Lee Min-hyung
KakaoBank, the nation's leading internet-only lender, has pledged to expand its loan sales portfolio and attain double-digit growth in its lending business, as part of its key business strategy for 2023, the company said Wednesday, after reporting brisk earnings.
According to its regulatory filing, the company posted a record operating profit of 353.2 billion won ($280.58 million) in 2022, up 37.5 percent from the previous year. The robust earnings growth was driven by soaring interest revenue amid global monetary tightening. The firm's interest revenue reached 1.29 trillion won last year, up 64.6 percent from a year earlier.
The company expressed a rosy outlook for this year, saying that it expects a more favorable sales environment throughout this year, as was shown by the rapid stabilization of stock markets here and abroad.
"KakaoBank is expected to seek more opportunities for growth in loan businesses ― such as loan repayment and lending comparison service ― so our sales environment is forecast to remain more favorable this year," Kim Seok, chief operating officer of the lender, said during a conference call. "On top of that, our advertising businesses are also expected to start generating decent revenues."
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The pace of the bank's earnings growth is unmatched in the domestic financial industry. KakaoBank achieved around threefold growth in only about two years after reporting an operating profit of 122.6 billion won in 2020. The company reported an operating loss of 104.2 billion won in 2017, its first year.
According to the lender's annual earnings report, its net interest margin ― a key indicator of a bank's profitability ― reached 2.83 percent as of the end of 2022, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous year. The figure is also expected to rise further this year, as the Bank of Korea and the U.S. Federal Reserve are not displaying any signs of cutting their key rates at least by the end of this year.
Considering the solid interest revenue growth, the bank forecast its loan business to grow by around mid-10 percent this year.
"We will ensure stable growth of our loan business by diversifying its portfolio into broader areas from diverse mortgage products to corporate loans," KakaoBank CEO Yoon Ho-young said. "Even if our loan business will not be able to achieve as robust growth as it had in 2022, we still expect it to achieve mid-10 percent growth in 2023."
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