Chairman Kim Han of JB Financial Holdings Co.(Photo: JB Fin. Holdings)

JB Financial Holdings logged an excellent first-quarter thanks to rising interest earnings amounting to 64.1 billion won, up 36 percent YoY, the company said. The first quarter results were the best since 2013 when the holding company was launched.
The interest earnings in the first quarter amounted to 299.5 billion won, up 9.3 percent YoY, while the fee earnings came to 8.7 billion won, up 54.3 percent YoY, the financial holding firm said.
The better-than-expected results were owed to two of its affiliates, Kwangju Bank and the Jeonbuk Bank, whose interest incomes shot up thanks to escalated net interest margins coming to 2.28 percent and 2.40 percent, respectively.
JB Financial Group Co., Ltd. reported consolidated earnings results for the full year 2017. The company reported full-year 2017 consolidated net income of 264.4 billion won, up by 31% compared to previous year. In terms of controlling interest net income, the Group reported 185.1 billion won, up by 29.7% year over year, continuing its double-digit bottom-line growth. Sound net income growth reflects the Group’s enhanced profit generation capability, attributed by strong asset base growth and improved credit quality.
JB Financial Group Co., Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides retail banking services in South Korea. It serves small-business and middle-class customers. JB Financial Group Co., Ltd. was founded in 1969 and is based in Jeonju, South Korea.
 JB Financial Group, one of largest retail financial groups in South Korea, has provided to customers diverse financial solutions through its affiliates.
The origins of two banking affiliates, Jeonbuk Bank and Kwangju Bank, took root in mainly the Southwest provinces of South Korea for the purpose of helping customers and businesses to thrive and economies to prosper. The affiliates continue to expand their footprints beyond their regions through innovation, advancement and a unique range of offers and services. The Group also has an affiliate, named Phnom Penh Commercial Bank, in Cambodia which is expected to be a bridge of the Group for an expansion in South East Asia.
The Group also has one of the top-tier auto-financing companies in South Korea, JB Woori Capital. The multi-financing affiliate seeks to diversify its revenue pipeline through innovative product development as well as to simultaneously rationalize its business portfolio to secure the company’s growth potential.
The Group launched JB Open Bank platform which will create a global banking alliance across countries as well as bring a new cooperation model with financial institutions. The Group also expects the platform to be able to help financial institutions by newly engaging customers from Fintechs, and Fintechs by mitigating considerable amounts of efforts that Fintech start-ups are usually spending in current regulations.
The Group has successfully implemented the platform in its home country and been discussing the implementation of the platform with several banks and Fintechs across regions.
A conference known as Money20/20 Asia will bring together senior representatives from across the ecosystem from the mighty markets of China and India, global financial hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore, innovation centres of Japan, South Korea and Australia and emergent fintech markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, the Philippines and more to connect and create the future of money.
“Our focal point is payments, and from this we take a unique, and widening, perspective. We bring together visionaries and innovators from across the spectrum who are inventing new ways to spend, manage, save, borrow, share and protect money,” they said.