IBK's first quarter earnings up 50.7%

Industrial Bank of Korea's first-quarter earnings jumped 50.7 percent from last year. The bank ascribes the growth to increased interest income and lower loan-loss reserves.

Net income came to 567.2 billion won or US$524.7 million in the January-March period, compared with 376.5 billion won in the same period last year.

As of the end of March, the average default rate stood at 0.8 percent, up 0.13 percentage point from three months earlier.

IBK's net interest margin, or the gap between deposit and lending rates, reached 2.68 percent as of end-March, the lender said.