Toss Bank-H1 earnings

Toss Bank suffers loss in H1 on increased loan-loss reserves

By Chung Joo-won

SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- Toss Bank, one of the country's internet-only banking services, on Wednesday said it suffered a massive loss in the first half of the year due to increased loan-loss reserves and other costs.

Net loss came to 124.3 billion won (US$92.7 million) on a consolidated basis in the January-June period, the company said in a statement.

Toss Bank launched in October last year as the third and last comer to the online-only banking sector.

Toss Bank attributed the first-half loss to increased costs. In the six-month period, the bank set aside 67.3 billion won as loan-loss reserves.

Most major lenders in South Korea increased such provisions this year amid a slowdown in economic growth in the face of the Bank of Korea's aggressive interest rates hikes.

As of end-August, the number of Toss Bank customers had come to 4.4 million.

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