KB Financial Q1 net rises 23.3 pct on rising margin

SEOUL, April 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top banking group KB Financial Group Inc. said Thursday that its first-quarter earnings rose 23.3 percent from a year earlier on improved interest margin and a fall in loan-loss reserves.
Net profit came to 757.6 billion won (US$706.3 million) in the January-March period, compared with 614.5 billion won during the same period the previous year, the group said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue declined 12.1 percent on-year to 6.44 trillion won while operating profit jumped 60.3 percent to 1 trillion won, it added.
Its net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, reached 3.06 percent in the first quarter, up 0.17 percentage point from the previous quarter.
The group said it put aside money worth of 415.6 billion won to cover credit losses last quarter, down 13.8 percent from a year earlier on the back of its improving asset quality.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr