April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Commercial banks in Korea saw their financial soundness improve slightly in the third quarter, the financial regulator said on Nov. 30.

The average capital adequacy ratio of 19 lenders stood at 15.4 percent as of end-September, up 0.01 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

A key barometer of financial health, the ratio measures the proportion of a bank‘s total capital to its risk-weighted assets.

The regulator ascribed the slight gain in the capital adequacy ratio to improved earnings and two internet-only banks’ capital injections via new share sales.

  In the July-September period, the lenders’ combined net income increased by 3.7 trillion won (US$3.43 billion), and two internet-only banks – K bank and Kakao Bank -- carried out capital increases worth a combined 1.3 trillion won.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)