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Card firms' H1 net dips 18% on fall in commission income

Published: 05 Sep. 2025, 08:39 Updated: 05 Sep. 2025, 10:06

A credit card being swiped at a restaurant in Seoul in December 2021. [YONHAP]

Credit card companies in Korea saw their combined net profit plunge by more than 18 percent from a year earlier due to a fall in commission income and increased financial costs, data showed Friday.

The combined net profit of eight credit card firms came to 1.23 trillion won ($883 million) in the January-June period, down 18.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Their combined revenue increased 2.4 percent, or 331 billion won, to 14.34 trillion won over the cited period, but combined costs increased by a larger margin of 4.8 percent, or 605 billion won, to 13.11 trillion won.

Their delinquency ratio came to 1.76 percent as of end-June, up 0.11 percentage point from six months ago, marking the highest since end-December in 2014, when the comparable figure was 1.69 percent.

Transactions by credit and debit cards rose 2.7 percent on-year, or 15.4 trillion won, to 595.7 trillion won in the first six months of the year.

Meanwhile, the financial regulator said the combined net profit of specialized credit finance companies, excluding credit card firms, came to 1.78 trillion won during the first half of the year, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier.

There were 183 specialized credit finance firms, according to the FSS. They include installment financing, leasing and new technology venture businesses.

Yonhap