Woori Financial Group Inc. said Thursday its second-quarter net profit jumped, thanks to a sharp increase in noninterest income.

The financial holding firm’s net profit came to 931.4 billion won (US$672.3 million) in the April-June period, up 49 percent from the same period last year, it said in a regulatory filing.

Its operating profit rose 10.5 percent on-year to 2.73 trillion won.

The financial group said its interest income came to 2.19 trillion won in the three months ended June 30, up 0.1 percent from a year earlier, while its noninterest income spiked 91.7 percent to 535 billion won over the cited period.

The group attributed the sharp increase in noninterest income to a “successful expansion of its corporate and investment banking business,” as well as a rise in returns on stock investment due to a drop in interest rates.

Woori Bank’s net interest margin, the difference between interest received and paid, reached 1.47 percent in the second quarter, down from 1.59 percent a year earlier.

In the f
irst half of the year, Woori Financial posted a net profit of 1.75 trillion won, compared with a net profit of 1.54 trillion won in the same period last year.

Its operating income came to 5.28 trillion won in the January-June period, up from 5.02 trillion won a year earlier.

Source: Yonhap News Agency