April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Foreign bank branches in Korea saw their combined net profit fall 10.6 percent in 2017 from a year earlier, data showed on April 4.

The combined net income of 38 foreign lenders‘ local branches reached 680.7 billion won (US$645.50 million) last year, compared with a profit of 761.5 billion won in the previous year, according to preliminary data by the Financial Supervisory Service.

“The decline was attributable to falling interest income and trading income,” the FSS said in a statement.

At the end of last year, the combined assets of foreign bank branches in Korea totaled 260.5 trillion won, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier.

The FSS said it will bolster monitoring of foreign bank branches as volatility in financial markets is likely to grow over US rate hikes.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)