Company DigestFundingLast updated: 6 August 2025

Kakao Bank Posts Record First Half of 2025 With 263.7 Billion Won Net Profit as Non-Interest Income Jumps 30.4%

Kakao Bank Corp. recorded its largest-ever first half in 2025, with net profit of 263.7 billion won (about US$190.0 million), up 14% year-on-year. Non-interest income jumped 30.4% to 562.6 billion won, while interest income declined 2% to 999.9 billion won amid the monetary easing cycle. The customer base reached 25.86 million at the end of June 2025, with 19.9 million monthly active users, and second-quarter net profit rose 5.1% year-on-year to 126.3 billion won. The company attributes the growth to a steady customer inflow, increased traffic and a strong rise in non-interest income.

Customer using mobile banking on a smartphone

H1 2025: the largest-ever first half

August 6, 2025 — Kakao Bank Corp. reported its results for the first half of 2025, as reported by the Yonhap News Agency. The bank operates in South Korea, and its corporate announcements and investor materials are published on the company website at https://www.kakaobank.com/.

The key reported figures for the first half of 2025 are as follows:

net profit — 263.7 billion won (about US$190.0 million), up 14% year-on-year and the largest first half in the bank's history;
non-interest income — 562.6 billion won, up 30.4% year-on-year, while interest income — 999.9 billion won — declined 2%;
customers — 25.86 million at the end of June 2025, with monthly active users of 19.9 million;
operating profit — 353.2 billion won for the first half, per the company's second-quarter earnings call.

The headline result is the record first half: net profit of 263.7 billion won exceeded the year-earlier figure by 14%, even though the largest income line — interest income — moved in the opposite direction and fell 2% over the same period.

The three growth drivers named by the company

The company attributes the record half-year result to three factors:

a steady customer inflow, which lifted the customer base to 25.86 million at the end of June 2025;
increased traffic on the platform, reflected in 19.9 million monthly active users;
a strong rise in non-interest income, which grew 30.4% year-on-year to 562.6 billion won.

The three drivers are connected: new customers widen the base, higher traffic turns that base into active usage, and non-interest income monetizes the activity beyond lending. With interest income declining 2% in the monetary easing cycle, the 30.4% expansion of the non-interest line is what carried the half-year result to a record.

Income mix: non-interest income up 30.4% against interest income down 2%

The two income lines moved in opposite directions in the first half of 2025. Interest income of 999.9 billion won declined 2% year-on-year, a movement the report links to the monetary easing cycle, which weighs on the yield side of a bank's book. Non-interest income of 562.6 billion won rose 30.4% over the same period.

Adding the two reported lines together gives combined income of about 1,562.5 billion won, in which non-interest income accounts for roughly 36% — this is arithmetic on the reported figures rather than a separately disclosed share, but it shows how much of the revenue structure now sits outside the traditional lending spread. A year of 30.4% growth on the non-interest line against a 2% decline on the interest line shifts that mix further in the same direction.

Second quarter 2025: net profit of 126.3 billion won, up 5.1%

Within the record half, the second quarter of 2025 produced net profit of 126.3 billion won, up 5.1% year-on-year. Operating revenue for the quarter reached 778 billion won, a slight quarter-on-quarter decrease that the company explained by reduced dividend income and fewer gains from disposal of non-performing assets. Operating profit for the first half stood at 353.2 billion won, per the company's second-quarter earnings call.

Subtracting the second-quarter net profit from the half-year total implies a first-quarter net profit of about 137.4 billion won — again arithmetic on the reported numbers, not a separate disclosure — which means the first quarter was the stronger of the two quarters within the half-year. The quarterly growth rate of 5.1% is also slower than the 14% pace of the half-year comparison, so the record result was built more on the strength of the opening quarter than on acceleration through the spring.

Customer base: 25.86 million customers and 19.9 million monthly active users

At the end of June 2025 the bank counted 25.86 million customers, and monthly active users stood at 19.9 million. The ratio of monthly active users to the total customer base works out at about 77% — arithmetic on the reported figures — indicating that roughly three quarters of all customers were active within a single month.

The company names the steady customer inflow and increased traffic among the drivers of the record result. A base of 25.86 million with 19.9 million monthly actives gives the non-interest income line — the fastest-growing part of the business at 30.4% — a broad and regularly engaged audience, and it is this combination that the report presents behind the largest-ever first half.