Citibank Korea Going Backwards
Standard Chartered Korea and Citibank Korea showed contrasting performances in the first quarter. Standard Chartered Korea fared well despite COVID-19 whereas Citibank Korea’s profit declined rapidly.
Standard Chartered Korea’s Q1 net profit is 102.9 billion won, up 9.7 percent from a year ago. That of Citibank Korea is 48.2 billion won, down 19.4 percent from a year ago. The interest incomes of the banks increased 5.46 percent to 243.2 billion won and decreased 11.7 percent to 205.2 billion won, respectively.
Citibank Korea’s net profit dropped from 249.4 billion won to 187.7 billion won last year. Its interest income before cost deduction dropped from 1,357.2 billion won to 1,089.5 billion won in that period. Both banks showed a decline when it comes to non-interest income. Specifically, that of Standard Chartered Korea fell 16.9 percent year on year to 108.9 billion won as its forex trading side remained sluggish unlike its wealth management side. That of Citibank Korea fell 13.9 percent to 84.8 billion won.
Their net interest margins declined together as well. Standard Chartered Korea’s fell from 1.45 percent to 1.23 percent and Citibank Korea’s fell from 2.47 percent to 2.05 percent from January 2019 to December 2020. In the first quarter of this year, the margins fell to 1.17 percent and 1.94 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the combined net profit of the other banks in South Korea was 5.5 trillion won, up 71.8 percent from a year ago, in the first quarter of this year. The five major banks (KB, Shinhan, Woori, Hana and NH) increased their net profit by 12.8 percent. In addition, domestic banks’ net interest margin rose 0.05 percentage point to 1.43 percent in the first quarter to rise for the first time since the same quarter of 2019.