KakaoBank Announces 2024 Business Results
Operating Profit of 606.9 Billion KRW, Net Interest Margin at 2.15%
KakaoBank recorded an annual net profit of 440.1 billion KRW in 2024, achieving its highest-ever performance. Notably, non-interest income reached 889.1 billion KRW, accounting for 30% of total operating revenue. Thanks to this growth, KakaoBank's total dividend payout amounted to 171.5 billion KRW, more than doubling compared to the previous year.
On the 5th, KakaoBank announced its 2024 business results, reporting that its annual net profit for 2024 increased by 24% year-on-year to 440.1 billion KRW. Last year's operating profit was 606.9 billion KRW, up 26.8% over the same period. The operating profit and net profit for the fourth quarter were 115 billion KRW and 84.5 billion KRW, respectively.
The bank's representative profitability indicator, net interest margin (NIM), recorded 2.15% in the fourth quarter, and the cost-to-income ratio (CIR) improved to 36.4%.
Last year, KakaoBank's non-interest income, excluding loan interest income, totaled 889.1 billion KRW. This represents a 25.6% increase compared to the previous year and accounted for 30% of total operating revenue.
A KakaoBank official explained, "This is the result of balanced growth across all sectors, based on continuous customer activity and deposit expansion, including loan product sales, fee and platform businesses, and investment financial asset management."
In particular, driven by the growth of loan comparison services and investment services, KakaoBank's fee and platform income reached 301.7 billion KRW last year.
The 'Compare Credit Loans' feature on the KakaoBank app, which allows users to compare and select from about 100 credit loans from partner financial institutions, expanded its partners to over 60. In the fourth quarter, the amount of credit loans compared and executed through the KakaoBank app with partner financial institutions reached 1.112 trillion KRW, more than six times the amount from the same period last year. In the fund management sector, efficient asset allocation generated 530.7 billion KRW in investment financial asset income, driving growth in non-interest income.
At the end of last year, KakaoBank's deposit and loan balances stood at 55 trillion KRW and 43.2 trillion KRW, respectively. The household loan balance in the fourth quarter increased by 84 billion KRW compared to the previous quarter.
KakaoBank also continued inclusive finance for low- to mid-credit borrowers who are in the blind spots of interest rates. Last year alone, KakaoBank supplied more than 2.5 trillion KRW in loans to low- and mid-credit borrowers. At the end of last year, the average balance and proportion of low- and mid-credit loans were approximately 4.9 trillion KRW and 32.4%, respectively.
Through a board resolution, KakaoBank decided on a dividend per share of 360 KRW for the 2024 fiscal year. The total dividend amount increased more than twofold from the previous year to 171.5 billion KRW, raising the total shareholder return ratio to 39%.
At the end of 2024, KakaoBank's customer base reached 24.88 million, with 2.04 million new customers added over the year. Monthly active users (MAU) reached 18.9 million, and weekly active users (WAU) hit 13.6 million, achieving record-high traffic.
KakaoBank stated, "Despite the uncertain and highly volatile external environment last year, we achieved balanced growth across all sectors based on KakaoBank's distinctive competitiveness. This year, we will continue sustainable growth by expanding inclusive finance and introducing innovative new services to become the first-choice comprehensive financial platform for our customers."
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