Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Han Dong-woo and Shinhan Bank President Suh Jin-won sell agricultural 

products made by a rural village with sisterhood ties with the bank at a makeshift market at a parking lot of the bank’s 

head office in Seoul on Oct. 16. (Photo:Shinhan Bank)

Shinhan Bank recorded 390.8 billion won in net profit in the third quarter, up 8.3 percent YoY, bringing its year-to-date profit to 1.897 trillion won, down 353.4 billion won YoY or 24.5 percent, the bank said recently. 

Net profit from interest earnings in the third quarter fell just a little, while reductions in marketing expenses and expenses for write-offs helped to prevent a larger loss in earnings.

Net interest margin (NIM) fell 1bp in Q3, while interest earnings dropped 1.1 percent from Q2 to 1.795 trillion won.

Non-interest earnings amounted to 250 billion won in Q3, up 34.3 percent, thanks to profits from the sale of bonds and the drop in the exchange rate of the Korean won boosting income from foreign exchange transactions. The bank’s marketing expenses fell 6.2 percent from Q2 to 660 billion won, but up 1.1 percent YoY. Write-offs of bad debts totaled 127 billion won, down 6.1 percent from the preceding quarter.

Non-performing assets rose only 0.60 percent from the previous quarter thanks to a trade off in defaulted loans and sales of non-performing assets with the NPL rate and the coverage rate down to 1.39 percent and 1.32 percent respectively, the bank said.

In the meantime, Shinhan Bank has always been focused on its mission to brighten the world by practicing “warm financing” sustained through its banking activities. In particular was the formation of the Social Responsibility Management Committee chaired by President Suh Jin-won, which is focused on four major objectives of the bank’s operation: support for SMEs, taking care of the financially weak, protection of consumers, and social service.

The bank has been centering its operation on its being a major dimension of the Korean economy, helping SMEs with technological potential to grow stably in order to create a sound growth base for grass roots companies’ operations.

The bank wants to ultimately create a healthy industrial ecological base by developing tailor-made financial products so that SMEs with new technologies and large growth potential can progress through the creation of businesses, growth, and job creation.

Those SMEs with new technologies and ideas, a big help to the creative economy, got some 663.8 billion won in special loans during Q2.

SMEs with excellent R&D activities also received financial help worth a total of 523.5 billion won by the end of June from the SMEs with Excellent R&D Activities Loan Account.

In the area of the New Technology-type Support Loan Account, Shinhan Bank disbursed 140.8 billion won in lonas, three times more than other banks with similar loan accounts.

The bank also gave 2 billion won to the Technology Guarantee Fund for the evaluation of technology, along with 2 million won for fees for the issuance of Technology Excellence Certificates for SMEs to encourage technology development. Some 1,000 SMEs received benefits from the fund.

Shinhan Bank also extended its financial support to the businesses in difficulty to recover their health through its SME Healing Program by releasing 186.8 billion won over 548 cases through the end of September.

The bank has decided to provide its consulting services to SMEs free of charge from April this year for the first time since the bank began providing consulting to SMEs in 2004. The bank set up a special team of six for consultation services to SMEs as part of its social service in July 2012, making use of its accumulated experiences for dealing with diverse companies and their organizational set ups during its long years of banking operations.