KB Financial Group Inc

I am Peter Kwon, the head of IR at KBFG. We will now begin the 2022 first half business results presentation. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone for participating today. We have here with us our group CFO and senior managing director, Scott So, as well as other members from our group management. We will first hear the 2022 first half major financial highlights from CFO and Senior Managing Director Scott So, and then have a Q&A session. I would like to invite our Senior Managing Director to deliver 2022 first half earnings results.

Good afternoon. I am Scott Y. H. Saw, CFO of KB Financial Group. Thank you for joining the company's first half 2022 earnings presentation. Before moving on to our earnings results, allow me to briefly run through key business highlights of the group. Q2-22 group net profit was 1.3 trillion won, up 11.4% year-over-year as of the first half, reporting 2.8 trillion won. Group ROCE was 12.5% being kept at a steady level as of the first half, while annualized EPS, earnings per share, was around 14,000 Korean won, up 11% year-over-year on a robust uptrend. Also, today, KBFG's BOD approved 500 won per share as the quarterly dividend. And following last February, we decided to do share cancellation of 150 billion won of Treasury shares. And as such, through 300 billion won of total share cancellation this year, in the midst of the spread of macro uncertainties and difficult business backdrop underpinned by our outstanding capital adequacy and stable earnings capacity, we have been consistent and differentiated in implementing our shareholder return policy. Globally, there is growing concern over stagflation, while Korean economy is mired with three highs, high interest rate, high inflation, and high exchange rate, which may undermine profitability of the banking business and widen credit risk. We therefore are focused on the fundamentals and preemptive risk management. For example, this quarter, based on conservative projections for GDP growth, policy rates and the FX rate, as well as other indicators and scenario analysis for crisis, we made around 121 billion won of additional provisions. By way of such conservative provisioning stance, we've been enhancing loss absorbing capacity, bringing groups NPR coverage ratio to 222.4%, which is the industry's top notch level, as well as top notch in terms of the global standards. Also last May, we ran a group-level stress test based on internal and external economic conditions and probable future risk factors. And even under a severe recession scenario of negative 6.3% GDP growth of the IMF, the group's capital adequacy will be above the regulatory requirement, yet again attesting to KB's sound financial prudence. Meanwhile, as a leading financial group fulfilling its social responsibilities, KBFG is extending various different financial support for the vulnerable and the less privileged who are suffering from economic slowdown and rate hikes. Also, ahead of the end of COVID-19 financial forbearance program in May, To alleviate burden for small businesses and the self-employed, depending on the borrower's repayment capacity, we allowed up to 10-year extension for amortization and introduced COVID-19 special long-term repayment amortization program offering grace period for repayment of the loans to allow for a soft lending. And out of all of the commercial banks, KB Bank was chosen as an affiliated bank for Citibank Korea for rollover of unsecured retail loans. This has proven KB's distinctive expertise in household loans and customers' trust, and we expect there to be some growth in household loan growth going forward amid somewhat of a sluggish first-half growth. Next, I will move on to the details of the company's earnings. KBFG's Q2 2022 net profit was 1.303.5 billion won, up 11.4% year-over-year to 2.756.6 billion won on the first half basis. On greater macro uncertainties and financial market volatilities, despite such difficult operational backdrop, we have shown the group's solid earnings capacity. However, Q2 net profit was down 10.3% Q1Q as conservative FLC forward-looking criteria was used to preemptively book provisioning and due to the lack of one-off gains such as the bank's corporate tax reversals in Q1 and excluding the impact of such non-recurring items, net profit is down 2.4% Q1Q. In more detail, First half 2022 group net interest income was 5 trillion 441.8 billion won and Q2 net interest income was 2 trillion 793.8 billion won up 18.7% year over year and 5.5% Q on Q. This is driven by rising rates leading to repricing of loans which ended up widening the NIM as well as due to the loan growth. Q2 group net fee and commission income was 874.9 billion won, down 4.4% Q1Q. And on a first-half basis, it reported 1,789.9 billion won, down slightly year over year. This year, against sluggish financial markets at both home and abroad, brokerage fee income was constrained, and on slower sales of financial products, sale of trusts and funds also slowed, dampening the group's fee and commission income. However, thanks to our business diversification and efforts to strengthen competitiveness, earnings fundamental behind generating fee and commission income has improved a notch, driving the IB business performance by twofold year over year, landing the group on a solid market position. And the securities business has gained a leading position on the league table for its DCM as well as ECM, M&A, and acquisition financing business. Next is other operating profit. Other operating profit this year underperformed on the bank of valuation loss from bonds following market rate hikes, while rise in FX rate and fall in equity index drove losses from ELS and CVA valuation, dampening performance from securities and derivatives and FX, leading to a sluggish performance both year-over-year and queue-on-queue. But for insurance underwriting profit, we saw overall improvement in loss ratio from the non-life basis, while life insurance profitability was sustained, continuing on a positive performance trend.

In the second half, we expect additional key interest rate hike. And since there is the added possibility that financial market volatility can increase, including for FX, we wish to maintain a defensive management stance for the time being and improve earnings stability through portfolio diversification and a flexible position strategy. 2022 first half group GNA posted $3,445,001,000,000. Despite the increasing group level investment in digitalization as a result of cost control efforts including labor costs, it only increased 1.6% YOY and is being well controlled. In addition, for Q2 G&A expenses due to seasonal factors, including increase in advertising and promotion costs and taxes and dues, increased 3.7% QOQ. Q2 group provision for credit losses posted 333.1 billion won and increased... by 203 billion won, a slightly high-range QOQ, as was aforementioned, reflecting the conservative FLC scenario in this quarter, with the around 121 billion won of additional provisioning, and with the removal of the Q1 sizable provisioning right back in this quarter, the recurring level of provisioning, excluding these non-recurring items, posted around 210 billion won level. First half, provision for credit losses boosted 463.2 billion won and increased slightly YOY due to preemptive provisioning and asset growth, but is maintaining a stable level on a recurring level. I will be covering the major financial indicators from the next page. First, 2022 first half group ROCE posted 12.49%, and as a result of solid core earnings growth and cost control efforts, a level of higher than 10% is being well maintained. 2022 June end bank loans in won posted 323 trillion won, and compared to end March, it grew 0.4% and 1.2% YTD, and on the whole, loan growth is at a low level. In the case of corporate loans, it posted 157 trillion won as of end June. It increased 2.1% compared to end of March and increased 5.5% YTD and is continuing solid growth rate for each quarter. In particular, general SME loans increased around 4 trillion won YTD and drove SME loans growth. For large corporate loans, with the loan demand growth following worsening conditions for corporate bond issuing and as a result of efforts to strengthen CIB business, it decreased 7.5% YTD. On the other hand, June and household loans posted 166 trillion won and decreased 2.5% YTD and is posting a minus growth rate. This was due to weaker overall loan demand due to strengthened household loan regulations and burden due to loan interest rate hikes. And in particular, since there was an increase of pressure to repay unsecured loans. In the second half of this year, it is forecast that there will be partial recovery of household loan growth, but since this is a period where conservative risk management is required due to internal and external conditions, we wish to focus on asset quality and profitability management and concentrate on qualitative growth centering on high-quality assets. Next is net interest margin. NIMT 2022 Q2 bank NIMT posted 1.73% and rose 7B PQOQ. And from this year, on a cumulative basis expanded to 12 BP. This was mainly attributable to the rapid loan asset repricing reflecting a steep key rate hikes from August of the previous year and the managed asset profitability improvement. On the other hand, Q2 Group NIM posted 1.96% in Rose 5 BP QOQ with the card financial asset yield decline including card loan and cash advance. An effect from card NIM contraction following funding cost increase, the increase was more limited compared to the bank NIM. Let's go to the next page. I would like to touch upon the group's cost income ratio, CIR. As you can see on the top left-hand graph, 2022 first half group CIR posted 46.5%. and the group's cost efficiency is being continuously improved. In addition, even excluding the non-recurring items including digitalization costs, CIR is showing a market-lower stabilization trend. With the visualization of strengthening efforts for workforce efficiency, we believe that the cost efficiency will be additionally improved, and we aim to maintain the group's recurring CIR so that it can improve to mid-40% level. Next, I would like to cover the credit cost. 2022 first half credit cost posted 0.23%, and even in a situation where credit risk is increasing due to rapid interest rate hikes and economic downturn, it is still being maintained at a stable level, and Q2 CCR, when excluding preemptive additional provisioning, is at a low level, at a 0.20% level. Next is the group's capital adequacy. As of end June 2022, Group BIS ratio posted 15.64%, and CT1 ratio posted 12.93%. With expansion of corporate and overseas asset expansion, risk-weighted asset increased, and with interest rate hike and stock price decline, and with the decrease in accumulated other comprehensive income, it decreased YTD. But on the back of robust profit generation and strategic capital management, it is securing the highest level of solid capital buffer in the financial industry. From the next page are the detailed materials related to the performance that I just aforementioned, so please refer to it if needed. With this, I will conclude 2022 First Half KB Financial Group Business Results presentation. Thank you for listening.

We will now begin the Q&A. For those of you joining us via the internet, please refer to the contact info on the very last page of the presentation screen. And for those of you using the phone, press star and one to submit your questions. Please bear with us one moment as we wait for questions to come in. We will take questions from Samsung Securities. Mr. Kim Jae-woo, please go ahead with your question. Yes, thank you for taking my question. I would like to ask two questions. First question relates to your shareholder return decision. You've decided to maintain the DPS and you've also decided to cancel your treasury shares, and I think that helps with the alleviation of concerns in the market. But my question is, would you be able to sustain this stance? There is positive hope as well as some negative, I guess, assessment. We see that the U.S. banks have started to end the treasury share-related cancellations. So we're concerned whether this type of a stance could actually continue and be sustained into the future. So if you have any guidance, that would be helpful. Second has to do with your asset quality. As mentioned, the economic situation is quite challenging and difficult. And I'm wondering whether the provisions that you have in place is sufficient. As you mentioned, your NPR coverage ratio is relatively high. However... The NPLs could also may rise quite steeply. So in the bank's assessment, with respect to your potential concerns and risks, where do you see the biggest risk? Is it in project financing or other types of products or segments? And also, are there any countermeasures or measures in place for you to strictly manage your asset quality? If you have any insights, please do share that with us. Thank you. Yes, hello. I am Scott So, the CFO of KBFG. I will respond to your question on shareholder return and then the appropriateness of the provisions that we have in place. And with regards to details relating to the provision, we have our CRO who's with us, so he will provide you with more details. Let me respond to the shareholder return-related question. In June and in July, we had a NDR during which we met with our major shareholders and investors. We had an overseas NDR, and we were able to listen to the feedback of our investors and shareholders, and I delivered that to our BOD and the top management. We believe that what the foreign investors want and what the major shareholders of domestic market want is not a steep rise in the dividend amount per se, but a continuous increase. trend and also an appropriate mix and balance between the cash dividend payout as well as the overall shareholder return. And second thing we were able to confirm was that Japanese banks, their dividend payout amount was not very big. And over the past couple of years, Japanese companies have done cash payout as well as treasury share cancellation. And they have turned quite shareholder friendly through such approach. We, of course, are fully considering all of these approaches. And after Q2, the U.S. banks have started to stop paying out dividend. If you look at some of the major banks of the US and their performance, it's not all of the banks, but I understand the case differs for different banks. After Fed had a stress test for each of the banks, I understand that they handed down a guidance for each of the commercial banks. So we can't really bring the situation of the US and apply that just directly. to Korea. With regards to dividend payout, we've been emphasizing this over numerous occasions. There is cash dividend payout as well as buying of treasury shares. So payout ratio, our objective, including those two approaches, we're going to do our best to reach that 30 percent as quickly as possible. That's the first thing I wanted to emphasize. And second, if you look at our net profit this year, If our net profit this year is at least one more, we're going to do our best to make sure our DPS also rises. And the third point I would like to emphasize is that our payout ratio, once we reach that 30%, rather than increasing the cash payout, we will focus more on share buyback and cancellation. That would be the direction for us going forward. If you look at our price to book, it's only 3.3 multiple. Under this condition, the share buyback from a mid to long-term perspective and canceling of those treasury shares we believe will be the better way for us to go. In terms of the appropriateness of the size of the provision, regarding the appropriateness assessment, we've looked at many aspects. If you were to compare us with some major banks in the U.S., Excluding the credit card, if you look at the provision out of the total loan book, and this is not against the NPL, but against the total loan book, if you were to compare a provision level versus the U.S. banks, there is no difference. And number two, even looking at credit card carve-out, some of the credit card product in the U.S., there are certain portions that account for bigger exposure, and us, vice versa. So because of that situation, there's a difference between the credit card provisions for U.S. versus Korea. So in KB Financial Group, we have global standards and we have the most higher-notch criteria based on which we've done our best to provision as much as possible for our credit card. So I would like to now turn it over to the CRO to provide a little more elaboration. Yes, I am Impegu. I'm the CRO of the KBFG. Regarding the asset quality and PF, you've also mentioned PF, so let me respond to that question. With the interest rate hike in Korea, there is some concern as to whether there will be a systemic risk for Korea. I do not think that will be the case. If you look at the global financial crisis, the subprime crisis, during that time, the LTV regulation was put in place preemptively by the regulators, and we were able to overcome the crisis. So we do think the interest rate will be on an uptrend for some time. But starting last year, there was a very strong DSR regulation, phase one, phase two, and phase three. There's been a continuous implementation of that. And from July, there was phase three DSR regulation, which is a very rigorous regulation. asset quality-related discipline, and we think that that will help the asset quality. Basically, as you know, for people, DSR is 40% if it's above $100 billion, and also there are regulations and rules for second-tier financial market and third-tier as well. So overall, we believe that this regulation will work as a safety pin for the system. Now, having said that, because of the rate hikes, if you look at savings banks, we believe that they're going to be quite severely impacted or highly impacted because if you look at their delinquency rate, delinquency rate is showing an uptrend. And the reason for that is because last year and two years back up to first half of this year, looking at the savings banks, there's been a steep rise in household loans last year, more than 50%. The reason is because there were a lot of platform linked like Pinda or Kakaopay or TOS. For all these platform-based customers, they took a certain level of fee, and these fintech companies have referred the loan products of the savings bank. And so that account for more than 40% of the total new loans originated through the savings banks. This was a new marketing methodology that was utilized by these companies. What's interesting is that these platform-linked loans Now, for credit card, it was a totally different picture. Credit card advance or credit card loans was not really linked up to the fintech platforms, but against their captive market, they did more card loan marketing. The reason I'm mentioning this is because at the savings bank, The subprime unsecured loans and household loans, the potential risk factors in the savings bank industry, it may have a big impact. But what I'm trying to say that it will not actually spill over to the credit card industry because the customer base as well as the marketing structure is very different between the two. And if you look at the relevant data, you will see that for the credit card industry, the platform-linked loans is very minimal at best. So with interest rate hikes, depending on the customer segmentation, yes, there may be some impact. But for the time being, we believe that the risk is going to be more or less contained within the savings bank industry. So that's the overall picture. And regarding the banking sector, as you know, We are very tightly managing the situation. Entry management is done quite rigorously. And we believe that going forward, we will continue to do so. And also... If there are potential risk events or if there's any borrowers whose creditworthiness is going to be significantly undermined, we actually have a model in place where we could preemptively assess for that and be ready for that. So if they extend their repayment period, for instance, they need to, we can think about further enhancing their collaterals or restructuring their loans, et cetera. So we have all of that mechanism well in place. And another thing is, despite all of that, you There is also ex post management regarding delinquency management. The importance of delinquency management is really going up. So at the overall group level, delinquency management, we are using AI and machine learning for bank, credit card, capital and savings bank. We've adopted that AL and ML based for the bank. We will open that system in September so we can actually do a good entry management and we can also do a good exit management and also everything in between. So we have all of the needed system in place so that we could fend against or prevent against any asset quality degradation of the company. So I'm not overly concerned about that. And another thing is... PF related, which has recently been featured in the articles. Bridge loan, PF, we have about 14 trillion in exposure. And all of that, basically what we've done was for each of the work sites, we've conducted all the reviews and inspections. And if we think that a special site is prone to issues, 40.3 billion is a potential risk, but it's all senior. We already have a senior debt position, so we're not highly exposed. So through bridge loans or PF loans, any potential real estate related issues, we believe that the issue is not that significant. And also going forward, For all of our project financing sites, for all of the, not just the 40.3 billion, but also highly risky work sites, we have categorized them so that we could appropriately manage them. And also when it comes to real estate management, depending on different regions, there are unsold lots. there is potential risk as well as construction company related risk, contractor related risk. So we have a risk management regime in place. Also, we have 20 different variables and parameters that help us decide which needs to be monitored and which site needs to be observed. appropriately, we have the underwriting process in place and risk assessment process in place. So with regards to all the project financing related exposures, we are well protected. And on the security side, PF security side, I can tell you that we are not experiencing any problem as of today.

Thank you very much for the answer. I believe that it was helpful. And we will take the next question. Yafay Tian from City Securities. Please.

I have a couple. The first one is there is a relatively lower trading-related income for this quarter. Would it be possible to give a breakdown of some of the losses that is weighing that line down, a little bit more granular detail? That would be super helpful. Second one is on the net interest margin outlook. Clearly, the BOK has turned more hawkish since the end of first quarter in terms of, you know, raising the rates. So would that change the net interest margin outlook for the bank? At the same time, we are also seeing the regulator want banks perhaps to, you know, provide relief to more vulnerable borrowers to prevent their debt servicing burdens. So how should we balance the thinking of rising rates? And, you know, probably banks would need to pass on some of the benefits to customers. And maybe just along with that, finally, Are there any discussion of a potential proposing of a bank-related tax in this current environment?

Thank you. I'd appreciate it if you could tell us more about it. Since the first quarter of 2014, the central bank seems to be changing its position on interest rates. Do you think this will change the perspective of NIM in the bank? And I think the regulation authorities are trying to reduce the burden of loans to the debtors. In the situation where the interest rate is being affected, the banks may feel the burden of giving these benefits to the owners. I wonder what plans you have. Lastly, I wonder if there is a possibility that additional taxes related to the bank will be added as a new government emerges. Thank you. We will soon answer your question, Yefei, so please bear just for a few more minutes. Thank you. I'm Kim Jaegun, the CFO of the bank. And for the bank NIM, I would like to answer that question first. Regarding the bank NIM, in Q2, It was 1.73%. So compared to the previous quarter, it rose 7 BP, and it expanded by 12 BP on a cumulative basis this year. And on an yearly basis, compared to the yearly NIM, you can see in the first half, 11 BP was improved. And prudently, we are expecting that in the second half of the year, we will have additional improvement in the NIM as well. We believe that five to six BIPs may be improved. However, as was mentioned by you, we know that there will need to be some policies to help the vulnerable borrowers. And because there's less demand for household loans, there will be more competition between the banks. So there will be an effect from the spread decline. So the NIM improvement range might be limited, but we do believe that the improvement trend will continue. In addition, portfolio management based on profitability, and in order to improve the profitability on our managed assets, we are working consistently, and we plan to steadfastly move in this direction. I would like to answer your question related trading. To answer your question, as you know, there was some FX fluctuations and increase in the fixed income yield. So you can see trading volatility was very high. However, we believe that in trading, the direction will be as follows. In the second half, we believe that there will be improvement in the profits. For more details, please contact our IR team and we will be more than happy to give you with more detailed information about trading forecast. Yes, I don't think you're connected, so we'll go to the next question.

Yes, thank you very much for the good results this quarter. My first question is quite simple. The biggest concern that people have is that BOK by the end of this year could hike the rates to 2.7% to 3%. When that time comes for the household loans, this will also apply to corporate loans as well, interest rate on household loans is going to go up quite significantly. So by the end of the year, what do you think is going to be the lending rate for the household loans as of the end of this year? Because according to our estimate, we believe that households' interest burden is expected to go up by 50% compared to the previous year. If that's the case, the borrowers are going to really feel the pressure. So from the bank's perspective, What are some of the ways for you to alleviate the interest burden and maintain your customer base and make sure that there is no excessive stress? So we'd like to understand what your measures are. Second question is a quite difficult question, and if it's difficult for you to respond, I guess you could decide not to. But if you look at BOK's financial stability report on the mutual finance issue, side the corporate lending there are cases where a household basically took out a loan under a corporate's name and made investment into properties and seemed like a lot of people made use of the short-term floating rate loans And it seems there's quite a bit of a burden that is felt by these borrowers. So when interest rates are further hiked, this may work as a stress. And if you look at these people, these types of borrowers, more than 50% of these borrowers are banking customers. So there seems to be rising risk from this. And also you would have a lot of Chinese customers. or the redundant customers who are taking out their loan under the name of the household as well as under the name of a corporate. So for these types of borrowers, what are your plans to fend off a potential risk? Yes, hello. I am Impil Gu, the CRO of the holding company. On the household side, end of this year, BOK is saying about 300 basis points. Then what impact will that have on our lending rates and what type of an impact would that bring? Now, if you look at our household loan, if you look at the repricing cycle, it's usually six months. So 60% will come every six months and 20% of the loans every year. So basically after one year, 80% of our loans will have gone through the repricing. We believe that up to this year, The impact or about 60% by the year end will be subject to that impact. When an interest rate rises, And if looking at its correlation to the delinquency rate, we do a retroactive assessment. For the banks unsecured loans, after about 11 month period, we see a meaningful tick in the delinquency rate. That has been our experience. So when we run our data, That basically is the result that we were able to see. So when the interest rate rises and that is having an impact on the bank, it actually has about 11-month lag, time lag. We start to see the impact on the bank about 11 months later. So what we did was preemptively we booked provisions and for the corporate loans we had the ample provisions and also for this year as well for the household loans. As our CFO has mentioned, we've also set aside these ample amount of provisions for these household loans. In terms of interest rate hikes, yes, there could be some vulnerable or at-risk borrowers. And just as we do for corporate customers, we also have long-term amortization reprogramming program. So for any customers and borrowers who may be at risk, we could convert them into a long-term repayment program. And if we make use of that program, we can make sure we mitigate the repayment burden of the borrowers, and also it helps for us as a bank to maintain our quality of asset. So these were our past experiences, and we are at this point really operating all of these different mechanisms at a more granular level. And then you asked about the second question. If you look at second tier financial market, our credit card capital and savings bank, the unsecured loans, the about more than 95% are all amortization and also they're all fixed rated. So with regards to increases in interest rates, these non-bank affiliates are not going to be impacted by the interest rate hikes. But as you've mentioned, Mr. Saul, For the mutual financing, there could be some borrowers who've received the loans under an individual and under a corporate. So these borrowers with multiple loans, we very closely manage these people. because we get multiple array of risk profile based on which we manage these borrowers who hold multiple loans. And I think you can contact me also, a person, one-on-one, but in the banking sector, of all of the banks in Korea, we've been very, very rigorous in managing and controlling these borrowers who hold multiple loans. So... Any potential risk that that could have on our bank, I could tell you, is pretty much limited and constrained.

Thank you very much for the detailed answer. It seems that there are no other questions in the queue, so we will wait for a few minutes until we can... and see if there are other questions remaining. And if you have any further questions, please contact us, and we will be more than happy to answer your question. I believe that because we had no... very sizable or important non-recurring items in this quarter, there might not be other questions coming in. So I believe that we have covered the major highlights and we will be waiting for just a few more seconds, but it seems that we have no other questions coming in. And with this, we will conclude this quarter.