Good morning and good evening. Thank you all for joining this conference call. Now we will begin the conference call for the fiscal year 2022 third quarter earnings results by KakaoBank. This conference will start with a presentation followed by a divisional Q&A session. If you have a question, please press star one, that is star and one on your phone during the Q&A. Now we shall commence the presentation on the fiscal year 2022 third quarter earnings results by KakaoBank.
Hello, this is Dianna Kang from KakaoBank's IR team. We will now begin KakaoBank's earnings call for the third quarter 2022. We are joined by members of management today, including our CEO, Daniel Yoon, Vice President, Jay Kim, Sean Kim, Chief Strategy Officer, Paolo Lee, Chief Business Officer, Bethuel Koh, Chief Service Officer, and Gigi Jung, Chief Technology Officer.
Please be advised that the financial results contained in today's call are preliminary unaudited results based on KIFRS, which may be subject to change upon review by an independent auditor. I will now hand over to Sean Kim, our CSO, to present on our third quarter business highlights and financial results.
Yes, good morning. This is Sean Kim from KakaoBank. I would like to thank all analysts and investors joining us today for our third quarter 2022 earnings conference. I will take you through key highlights of our financial performance on page three. As of the end of the third quarter, we now have a total of 19.78 million users, which means we have attracted close to 20 million users within 5 years from launch.
Building on this immense broad customer base, we saw continued growth across our products and services in the third quarter, driven by our mortgage loans and Mini accounts. We recorded operating profit of KRW 104.6 billion, representing 47% growth year-on-year. Let me go over more details on the performance of our mortgage loans and Mini accounts. A convenient chatbot-based UX and competitive interest rates appear to be having a big impact in improving awareness for our mortgage products and in improving customer satisfaction. We've continued to expand the geographical coverage of our mortgage products, which are now offered nationwide starting from August. This has been driving steep growth in our new mortgage loan balance in the second half as we look to achieve a target balance of KRW 1 trillion by the end of this year.
Okay, on to page five for our Mini accounts. As of September end, we recorded a total of 1.5 million users as Mini accounts have become an essential item for teens in managing their financial lives. The activity level has been getting even stronger with many using their Mini accounts every day, with monthly average logins per user increasing to 24.3 x, and monthly average transactions per user also up to 30.9x . We're planning to open new services within the year where users can use Mini to top up their T-money cards and check the balance. This is expected to continue to drive up the activity level as well as transaction volume of Mini going forward. Next on to page six for our customer base.
Yes, as mentioned earlier, we have ramped up our customer base very quickly since launch with 19.78 million users as of the end of the third quarter. MAU, which is a good measure of the activity level of our users, is now at a record high of 15.51 million. Our customers are evenly distributed across all age groups, and our working age population penetration is now 68%, up 7 percentage points Y-o-Y. Moving on to page seven. As our customer base continues to grow, the activity level of our users is also getting stronger compared to the four major banks, although our market share in the first half of the year is 2% based on assets. It stands at 16% based on the number of transactions.
This is particularly encouraging considering that the number from the four major banks also include their corporate account transfers. Thanks to high activity levels, current deposits per user has grown at a CAGR of 24% over the last 5 years, with the share of users linking up their KakaoBank accounts with simple mobile payment services also growing quarter-over-quarter, now reaching 52% of MAU in Q3. Yes, now I will move on to the third quarter financial results. Page 8, our operating revenue. Interest income continued growth driven by the policy rate hike and expansion of housing deposit loans and mortgage loans. As a result, our third quarter operating revenue came in at KRW 411.8 billion, up 49% Y-o-Y and 11% Q-o-Q.
On a cumulative basis, interest income accounted for 80% of operating revenue in the third quarter, with platform fee and other revenue accounting for the remaining 20%. Next on to deposits and funding on page nine. In the third quarter, our deposit balance grew 19% Y-o-Y and 4% Q-o-Q, recording KRW 34.6 trillion. The share of low cost deposits increased to 62.1% as of the end of the third quarter, driven in large part by growth in contribution from group accounts, which contributed 14%. Our funding costs recorded 1.22%. We had 7 rate hikes this year alone with the benchmark policy rate increasing by 2 percentage points versus the end of last year. Nonetheless, we've continued to maintain an efficient low funding profile as we continued to grow our low cost deposit base.
Next, moving on to our differentiated deposit products. Page 10. Our group accounts are quite beloved by many users thanks to very convenient services. You can use them to send out chat room invites and manage membership fees. The number of group account users is now 7.8 million as of the end of the third quarter, up 22% YTD. We'll be adding on even greater functionality later this year with the launch of membership fee management services, reflecting user needs. For our 26-week installment savings accounts, we have been collaborating with many different partners to provide differentiated benefits and fun to our users, and they have been quite popular and well-received every time. September, we launched our 26-week savings product with KakaoTalk and had 100,000 new accounts just within one day of opening.
Right after the 26-week installment savings with GS Caltex was launched this October, the GS Caltex app shot to the No. 1 position in the App Store popularity rankings, demonstrating the competitive strength of KakaoBank as a distribution channel. Next on to loans on page 11. In the third quarter, our loan balance recorded KRW 27.5 trillion, up 10% Y-o-Y and 3% Q-o-Q. As we resumed issuing credit loans for high credit borrowers in June, this had the effect of easing the decline in our credit loan balance amid continued growth in our housing deposit and mortgage loans. Although credit loans account for more than half of our loans at present, we plan to change the loan mix so that secured loans such as housing deposit loans and home mortgage loans account for more than 50% of the total mix.
Meanwhile, mid credit loans now account for 23.2% of our credit loans, and net interest margin recorded 2.56%, which is 29 basis points higher versus the second quarter due to the rise in benchmark rates and increased portion of low-cost funding. Yes, let me now go into more detail about our platform business starting page 12. For securities brokerage accounts, the number of new account openings was 80,000 in the third quarter amid a broad-based contraction in the equity markets, with a total of 6.09 million accounts on a cumulative basis. We started partnering with Mirae Asset Securities as well, and we'll be adding on more partnerships in the fourth quarter to provide greater options to our users.
For referral loans, in the third quarter, we added on Shinhan Savings Bank as a new referral loan partner, making for a total of 20 financial partners. The cumulative loan referral balance increased by 33% YTD, recording a total of KRW 5.5 trillion. We will be adding on more diverse lending partners from the banking sector to offer users a wider range of loan referral services. Moving on to page 13. For co-branded credit cards, we are currently working with a total of five credit card partners, with the number of cards issued recording 520,000 on a cumulative basis, a 42% increase versus the end of last year. We are building out our advertising business, starting out with Kakao Bizboard ads and loan ads.
We have been executing Kakao Bizboard ads cautiously in terms of propriety and sensitivity specific to the sector that is being advertised. Building on our 20 million strong customer base, we have been able to boost in-app exposure consistently, gaining a positive response from our advertisers. We've been maximizing the advertising effect of our loan ads through direct placement of exposure to real demand users. By expanding ad inventory, we are targeting significant growth in our ad business in 2023. Next, moving on to Mini on page 14. Mini users grew 30% YTD, recording a total of 1.5 million, achieving 64% penetration in the age 14 to 18 population in Korea. The transaction value of Mini card users grew 61% YTD, recording KRW 361 billion in the third quarter, seeing ongoing growth momentum. All right.
Starting on page 15, let me explain about our brand new banking service for business owners that we rolled out just this week. As an online-only bank, KakaoBank, we were the first to launch a lineup of banking services targeting business owners, including banking accounts, payments, and business loans. This is our first step moving into the corporate banking sector, leveraging the know-how we have accumulated in retail banking. Our goal is to provide individual business owners who up to now had to use complicated, inconvenient banking services, with an innovative and brand new user experience in financial services. Page 16. We will be starting with basic business banking services, gradually expanding into a full lineup of business solutions so that ultimately business owners can take care of all of their business banking needs on the KakaoBank app.
We will build on our initial offerings of bank accounts, check cards, credit cards, and loans to provide diverse and practical content so that we can ultimately expand beyond simple banking into other business management related services. For example, tax or credit management, and become an all-in-one total solution for business owners in their entire journey running a personal business. Page 17 is a reference slide, so please refer to that for further details on our business banking services. On page 18, let me touch briefly on our move into the certification business. Verification is an essential process for mobile banking. By acquiring and utilizing diverse verification or certification-related licenses, we aim not only to improve in-app processes, but in the mid to longer term, provide seamless one-stop access to third-party products and services as well.
We were designated as an identification service agency in September, and plan on acquiring further licenses as a certified electronic document intermediary and also electronic signature certification service provider within the year, so that we can expand into areas such as the identified and verified electronic signature service, as well as the registered e-document delivery service. Ultimately, our entry into certification will serve as a bridge into diverse business processes that we are preparing to move into at KakaoBank. Next on page 19 are our plans for new service launches. In November, we will be providing Coinone crypto exchange users with real name-based deposit account services to support stable and convenient trading of crypto assets. In December, we will be adding on stock market news alerts, domestic stock and TS function, to provide full in-app coverage for the users' stock trading needs.
Yes, we are planning to launch funds trading services within the first half of next year, which will be designed to be easy to use even for beginners, so that they can start investing in funds easily. We expect this to lay the foundation for expanding our services into the asset management context going forward. By seeking the main license for MyData service, we wish to provide a new UX in financial services that offers greater convenience than ever before. Next, moving on to page 20 on our SG&A and CIR. In the third quarter, SG&A recorded KRW 93.5 billion, up 3% Q-o-Q. Advertising expense increased KRW 4.5 billion versus Q2, following our TV ad campaign for the newly launched mortgage loans, as well as for promotional activities for our group accounts.
IT expenses rose slightly on increased cloud usage. CIR was 39.7%, which is down 1.3 percentage points Q-o-Q. Moving on to page 21. Third quarter operating profits increased 47% Y-o-Y and 41% Q-o-Q, recording KRW 104.6 billion from improved interest income. We saw a slight Q-o-Q improvement in ROE and ROA, which recorded 4.86% and 0.7% respectively. Page 22. In the third quarter, delinquency went up to 0.36% as the share of mid-credit loans increased, while NPL ratio was 0.29% and loan loss allowance coverage ratio 273%. We have been managing risk at a stable level to prepare against changes in the internal and external environment, which I will be explaining in the next slide.
Page 23. First, we are increasing the proportion of secured loans in our loan portfolio to maintain stability against any potential abrupt swings in the business cycle. As of the end of the third quarter, secured loans accounted for 46% of the loan mix, up 11 percentage points YTD. In the mid to longer term, we will adjust the loan mix between secured and unsecured loans to be aligned with the banking sector average while taking into consideration our shared target for mid credit loans. We have consistently been engaged in preemptive risk management against macro uncertainties and maintained a loan to deposit ratio more conservatively versus regulatory requirements while centering our investment portfolio around safe assets. Consequently, building up a strong liquidity position. We also have a very solid balance sheet with sufficient loss absorption capacity against credit exposure.
We've also enforced preemptive provisioning policies as an added buffer against credit loss in the event of further deterioration in the economy. This concludes our financial results and business performance for the third quarter 2022. With that, we will now move on to the Q&A session.
Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone. In order to allow as many Q&A chances as possible within the restricted time, we would appreciate only two questions per each participant. The first question will be provided by Jihyun Cho from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead with your question.
Yes, thank you for the opportunity to ask some questions out of two. It seems that you have seen improvement in your NIM on a cumulative basis versus last year, also versus the prior quarter as well by 27 basis points. It does seem that the main driver is more low-cost funding versus other commercial banks. However, it does seem that the trend is more marked in the third quarter. So are there any one-off factors that would explain that kind of a bigger increase in NIM in the third quarter? And what is your outlook for the fourth quarter and also next year? Second question has to do with SG&A.
It seems that your labor headcount continues to grow in the third quarter as well, whereas your labor expenses have decreased on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Is there any one-off factors that came into play in the second or third quarter this year? I would think intuitively that as you roll out new products like the home loans, we'll need to do new hires of underwriters and development personnel. What is your outlook in terms of labor costs, labor headcount trends going forward? Ultimately, what level of CIR do you think is achievable?
Yes, this is Sean Kim, the CSO. Let me take your question. First regarding your question on the more marked improvements we saw in NIM, particularly in the third quarter versus other quarters.
I think, the main driver, actually is, the way we manage our loan-to-deposit ratio, the LDR, that is responsible for the slightly different pattern of NIM growth in the third quarter versus other, quarters. It so happens that in the third quarter, relative to the growth we saw on the loan side, our deposits grew by a greater margin. Through adjustment of, interest rate or pricing competitiveness, we saw a more marked increase in NIM in Q3.
지금 자금시장의 여러 가지 추가 변동 요인이라든가, 기준금리의 조정 같은 것들이 있어서, 저희의 사 분기 NIM은, 삼 분기하고는 좀 다른, 이전 분기들과 유사한 모습으로 시중은행 전체적인 NIM의 변동과 유사한 모습으로 가지 않을까 생각하고 있습니다.
In the fourth quarter, there are various outstanding factors that are currently pending, how the funding markets will evolve or whether there will be more adjustments to the policy benchmark rate in Korea. Based on these additional variables in the fourth quarter, we think that the NIM patterns will return back to historical quarter trends similar to the trends that the other commercial banks in Korea have been witnessing.
시중은행과 비교했을 때 저희 포트폴리오의 구조에 약간의 차이가 있어서 이 부분이 NIM의 추이에 대해서 영향을 주는 부분이 분명히 있습니다. 이전 실적 발표 중에서도 저희가 말씀을 드렸는데요. 저희는 신용대출의 비중이 높고, 금리 변동에 따른 조정 주기가 조달에 사용되어지는 정기 예적금을 고려한 변동 주기보다 좀 더 빠르다 보니 금리 상승기에서 NIM이 빨리 반영되는 부분이 분명히 있습니다. 아울러서 2023년 NIM 전망에 대해서도 말씀을 주셨는데요. 현재로서는 저희가 지금 내년도 사업 계획에 대한 논의를 한참 진행 중에 있어서 지금 당장 바로 드릴 수 있는 수준은 아니지만, 아시는 바와 같이 예대율 어떤 그 마진에 대한 공시라든가, 이런 것들 어떤 제도적인 변화도 있기 때문에 이런 부분을 고려해서 적정 수준의 NIM을 목표로 하는 논의를 진행하도록 하겠습니다.
I believe that in prior IR sessions, we did explain how there was a slight difference in the structure of our portfolio versus the other commercial banks that does definitely impact our NIM trends versus the other banks. Higher proportion of credit loans. In a rate hike cycle, adjustments to the floating rate on these unsecured loans actually happens in interval to our products when at the rate hike cycle the increase in the rates are applied faster on the loan side, which is reflected in our NIM trends. In terms of our outlook for NIM for next year, because we're still right in the middle of discussions about next year business plans, it is hard for me to say.
Many factors that we consider may be changed, including regulation, the loan-to-deposit ratio. We will try to shape our decisions around finding an adequate NIM target level.
다음은 인건비와 CIR 비용에 대해서 답변드리도록 하겠습니다.
To address your question on labor spend and CIR.
지난 이 분기에는, 지난 실적 발표 때도 말씀을 드렸는데요, 건강보험료와 같은 복리후생비의 조정이 이 분기에 있다 보니 상대적으로 일회적 요인이 있었습니다.
I believe we mentioned this at the conference call for the second quarter, but it is true that there were certain one-off cost items on the labor side in the second quarter regarding payment of health insurance contributions or other employee welfare and fringe benefits.
건강보험료와 고용보험료와 같은 일회적 요인이 사라졌기 때문에 3분기에는 인건비의 하락을 저희가 기록할 수 있었고요. 다만 그럼에도 불구하고, 질문 주신 것처럼 카카오뱅크는 성장 회사로서 지속적인 상품 및 서비스를 추가적으로 개발하고 출시해야 되는 부담이 있고, 이를 추진하기 위한 인력들을 여전히 많이 필요로 하고 있습니다. 향후에도 저희는 개발 인력을 중심으로 필요한 인력을 지속적으로 채용해 나갈 계획이고요. 다만 그럼에도 불구하고 저희가 생각하는 CIR 타겟은, 금년의 경우에는 40%를 조금 상회하는 수준이 될 거라고 추정하고 있고요. 2023년도에 대한 업무 계획은 논의 중에 있지만, 시장의 기대가 있는 만큼 시중은행들과 비교해서 굉장히 경쟁적인 수준의 CIR 비율을 목표로 삼아야 한다라고 생각하고 있습니다.
Again, in the second quarter, there were one-off cost factors, including the health insurance contributions, also payment into the employee employment insurance scheme as well. However, these one-offs are no longer in place in the third quarter, which is why we saw a decrease in our labor expenses. However, as a growing company, we will continue to roll out new products and services, and we'll need to invest continuously in new people for these new developments. New hiring will continue. That said, we intend to maintain a robust CIR target somewhere slightly above 40% for this year. For next year, although it's hard to say because the business planning is still underway, there are certain market expectations that we seek or that we are mindful of.
Relative to the commercial banks, we do think that we should aim for much more competitive CIR versus the other banks.
The following question will be presented by Hye-jin Park from Daishin Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
Okay. First, regarding the data center. Regarding the data center fire, I imagine that through media reporting, you have probably already read or heard about how, as a bank, we have responded throughout that incident period and the extent of the damage. As a bank, we have been in operation fully in compliance with all regulatory requirements regarding data storage and retention, and disaster recovery and redundancy as well. As we have not suffered any big damage as a result of that fire.
Our assessment is that we did not see meaningful damage amongst any of the KakaoBank customers. If you look at the actual figures for the number of customers, also our deposit balance before and after the fire incident, we have not observed any major change. Nonetheless, as an affiliate of the larger Kakao Group that shares in the Kakao brand, we believe it's very key and essential for us to earn the trust of all Kakao users. We are very committed to working on a continued basis for more stable operations going forward. I am cautious about sharing further details, but we are in current discussions with the FSS, the authorities, regarding this matter. Again, because they're still ongoing, I cannot share further details.
Regarding your question about the fees. Perhaps the purpose of the question had to do with the composition of the fee expense because we actually categorized those expenses as fee expenses related to loans and deposits, and then fee expenses not related to loans and deposits. And in the course of preparing for future businesses, we do sometimes incur certain fee expenses. However, because it is still in the preparation phase, we do not have, you know, we cannot officially attribute which business item is correlated with which fee expense.
Regarding the fee expenses that pertain to our loan or deposit business, a lot of that has to do with the projects that we have underway together with the Housing Finance Corporation, for example, or associated with our housing deposit loans. There are certain fees that are incurred. As the portion of those types of products increases, as a percentage of the total portfolio, again, the fee portion also increases.
The following question will be presented by Byung-gun Lee from DB Financial Investment. Please go ahead with your question.
Yes.
Yes. Thank you. This is a little bit late, but I'd like to congratulate you on achieving good results in line with market consensus or expectations. I have a question. If you look on page 23, you do highlight the fact that you do have sufficient capital buffer to fund and acquire assets necessary for future growth. But it can be interpreted that actually you're used to paying capital from your shareholders, but that is in fact lowering your capital efficiency parameters like ROE. If you're talking about risk-weighted assets of KRW 13.2 trillion, I think that is probably enough capital to fund five years' worth of future growth, roughly speaking.
In that sense, what is your outlook in terms of loan growth next year in terms of the loan amount? And then how do you intend to further improve efficiency of your excess capital that you are sitting on? And the second question has to do with returning shareholder value. I think a previous guidance from the company was that sometime after the general shareholders meeting, you may be ready to elaborate further on any share buybacks or dividend payments to shareholders.
From certain articles that have been published in the press, they cited problems with AOCI and some credit cost ratio that would make it likely that you may actually have very limited, if not zero, profits available for dividends. At the end of this year, what are your projections in terms of the size of profits available for dividend payments pursuant to the Commercial Act? Also, your plans regarding any share buybacks?
함께 논의하는 과정에서 적정 규모의 자본이 얼마나 확충되어야 되는지 이런 고민이 있었고요. 결과로 작년에 이조 이상의 대규모 자금을 저희가 조달할 수 있었습니다.
Last year, in August, at the time of our IPO, we had discussions, of course, with our investors and also market participants regarding what our future outlook would look like in terms of growth in the next three to five years. We had discussions regarding how much capital would be required to fund growth over that kind of timeline. As a result of the IPO, of course, we raised more than KRW 2 trillion.
저희는 여전히 설령 각종 규제라든가 거시경제 환경이 굉장히 저희 사업 환경에 우호적인 상황이라고 하더라도 어렵게 조달된 자금의 집행을 일 년 만에 또는 이 년 만에 모두 활용하는 것을 생각하고 있지는 않았습니다.
Even if the regulatory environment or the overall macro environment may have been favorable to our business, we had no intention of using up the hard raised capital within just a short period of 1-2 years.
은행의 근간이 되는 여신 비즈니스는 충분한 사업 운영 경험과 그 과정에서 확보되어지는 데이터가 있어야만이 건전성과 성장성, 수익성을 모두 확보한 형태로 지속 가능성을 확보할 수 있기 때문에 저희는 여신 성장이 자본이 확충되었다라고 해서 일, 이 년 내에 대규모로 확충하는 그런 접근은 적절하지 않다라고 판단했습니다.
The foundation of our business as a bank, of course, is the lending business, which requires a great deal of accumulated operational experience and data to achieve sustainable soundness, growth, and profitability. Just because we have a sufficient capital base, we do not believe that it would be a right approach to try to dramatically increase loan growth within just one to two years.
이런 맥락에서 카카오뱅크는 현재 확보하고 있는 자금에 기반해서 크게 세 가지 정도의 활용성을 기대하고, 활용 방안을 생각하고 있습니다.
In this context, in terms of capital deployment, we are thinking of it along three possible perspectives.
일단 여신의 확장입니다. 지금도 쉽지 않은 상황이지만, 저희가 금년에 출시한 주택담보대출에 대한 고객들의 수용도가 시간이 경과될수록 더욱 크게 확장되고 있다라는 것을 저희가 확인하고 있어서, 이런 확신에 기반해서 내년도에는 저희가 출시한 주택담보대출과 또 기존에 이미 좋은 성과를 내고 있는 전월세 대출을 기반으로 해서 내년도 여신 성장이 금년도보다는 대폭 큰 성장세를 이루어낼 것이라고 기대하고 있습니다.
In terms of use of capital, the first use may be in growing our lending business. Of course, the conditions are not very favorable right now, but the new mortgage loan product that was launched this year is increasingly being well received by the market. Based on this conviction that it will continue to do well, we intend to grow lending in 2023, particularly for the mortgage loan and also the housing deposit loans that have so far been doing very well, at a higher rate versus 2022.
또한 어제 마침 출시된 개인사업자 대출의 경우에는 가계대출에 대한 새로운 대안으로서 카카오뱅크의 대출 성장세를 지속해 줄 또 다른 드라이버라고 저희가 판단하고 있습니다.
Of course, it was just yesterday that we newly launched our business loan product for individual business owners. We think that this can represent a new alternative to the household loan, and we see this as a very strong driver for loan growth going forward for KakaoBank.
두 번째로는 카카오뱅크는 혼자만으로 이 각, 국내 금융시장의 지속적인 혁신을 수행하기는 매우 어렵다고 판단하고 있어서 좋은 제휴 파트너, 좋은 회사, 좋은 서비스를 가지고 있고 좋은 역량을 가진 인력에 대한 투자를 지속적으로 진행할 생각이 있습니다.
We believe that we will not be able to really deliver ongoing innovation to the local financial markets just on our own, which is why we're always looking to continue investing in good partners, good companies, with very competent services, and very strong capabilities as well.
이러한 제휴에 대한 가능성은 국내뿐만 아니라 카카오뱅크는 상장 당시에 약속드린 것처럼 해외에서도 관련한 노력을 계속하고 있으며, 머지않은 장래에 뚜렷한 가시적인 성과도 낼 수 있다라고 저희는 판단하고 있습니다.
These partnerships, of course, will not be limited just to the local market. In line with the commitment that we expressed at the time of our listing, we continue to carry out these efforts outside of Korea as well. We believe that in the short future, we may be able to produce and show you some visible outcomes. Then regarding your last question on share buyback. As you are well aware, because of additional provisioning requirements for loan loss reserves, it is hard to say at this point what the potential size of any share buyback would be or could be.
Regardless of the potential size of any share buyback, we have already clearly promised and outlined our commitment that, after closing our accounts in March next year, and once the exact amount of profit available for dividend payment is confirmed, we intend to determine what level would be adequate, in line with shareholder views and expectations as we continue to think hard, of course, about growth, to execute share buybacks, to the extent that it is manageable.
The following question will be presented by Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.
Yeah. The first question has to do with the previous question regarding share buybacks or dividend payments. Your multiple is still above book value at 1.4x. But as a growth stock, I would think that in terms of achieving greater shareholder value rather than these buybacks or other types of policies, I would think that focusing more on growth higher than the other industry peers or achieving economies of scale may serve as a stronger share price driver. You talked about your plans for share buybacks, but is it your policy to continue to do these share buybacks on a continued basis? The second question has to do with asset soundness.
We have seen that for certain savings banks in Korea offering low to mid credit loans, they have been seeing a meaningful increase in their delinquency rates. KakaoBank, you have also been increasing your mid to low credit loans starting August last year, in line with your target share. Amid the increase in the market rates, what is your outlook in terms of the soundness of those loan assets? Just to check, I think some of the NPL ratios, there's a bit of a mismatch or delinquency depending on what dataset you're looking at. I couldn't catch everything, but between the textbook versus the business report, it seems like other banks include certain items where it may actually be left out for KakaoBank. If you could clarify.
먼저 자사주 매입에 대한 정책의 적정성에 대한 질문에 말씀드리도록 하겠습니다.
Let me address your first question whether share buybacks would actually represent an appropriate policy.
저희 또한 질문하신 의도와 내용에 대해 크게 공감하는 부분이 있고, 많은 고민과 검토가 필요한 상황이라고 이해하고 있습니다.
We also do relate to your concerns, and we really understand the purpose behind your question as it really is something that deserves a lot of serious review and thought.
그럼에도 불구하고 카카오뱅크 성장을 위한 충분한 자금은, 이전 질문에서 설명드린 것처럼 카카오뱅크는 이미 확보하고 있다고 생각을 하고 있기 때문에, 성장에 관한 고민은 그 부분으로 대응하는 것이 맞다라고 현재 판단하고 있습니다.
That said, our current position is that because we have a sufficient capital base, fund growth for KakaoBank, that should be the key driver for our concerns over growth.
말씀드린 것처럼 매년 삼월 결산 이후에 이 관련한 논의는 시장에 계신 많은 분들과 저희 주주분들 또는 내부의 많은 논의와 협의를 거쳐서 카카오뱅크가 감내할 수 있는 수준과 저희의 의사결정이 이후에 주가라든가 카카오뱅크에 대한 기대에 어떻게 영향을 미칠지를 충분히 고민해서 결정하도록 하겠습니다.
Regarding possible buyback policies, we will engage in thorough discussions after closing in March next year, engaging with market participants, our shareholders, and also paying a great deal of thought, of course, through internal discussions as well. We will try to find a level that we can manage and also we will consider what impact that kind of decision-making can have potentially on our share prices and also market expectations toward KakaoBank.
두 번째로 저축은행 관련한 중저신용자 대출의 건전성에 대한 질문을 주셨는데요. 저희도 건전성 관리가 매우 긴요한 상황이라고 이해하고 있습니다. 다만 카카오뱅크는 중저신용자 대출에 대한 정책 목표를 달성해야 되는 과제가 분명히 있습니다. 그래서 저희가 할 수 있는 건전성 관리에 관한 다양한 노력을 이미 하고 있는데요. 이 부분에 대해서 조금 자세히 설명드리도록 하겠습니다.
Regarding your question regarding mid-low credit loans, asset soundness surrounding the savings banks in particular, we do also agree that maintaining asset soundness is a very pressing and important matter. We are in a position where we do have to achieve policy goals that have been outlined for us in terms of the share of mid-credit loans. We have been enforcing very tight management of asset soundness already. Let me explain further.
전체적인 포트폴리오의 담보대 신용의 비중을 조정하고 있다는 말씀은 수차례 드렸습니다.
We have mentioned already many times that we have been adjusting the split between secured versus unsecured loans in our loan portfolio.
두 번째로는 실제 작년 8월부터 집중적으로 취급했던 중저신용자 대출에 대한 관련 데이터가 1년이 경과되면서 굉장히 많은 수준으로 확보가 되고 있어서, 이 부분이 이후의 underwriting criteria라든가 각종 신용정책의 실행에 있어서 많은 도움을 주고 있습니다.
Second, regarding the mid- to low credit loans that we started focusing on starting August last year, since it's been more than a year now, we have actually been able to accumulate a great deal of actual transaction data. This will inform our underwriting criteria and also our credit-related policies going forward, and it is quite helpful.
예를 들어서 취급 당시에 저희가 risk analytics를 통해서 확인했던 연체율의 전이 정도를 지금 실제 일어나는 숫자와 비교했을 때 크게 다르지 않는 범위 내에서 연체가 진행되고 있음을 확인할 수 있습니다.
For example, at the time of origination of those loans, we had run projections on possible delinquency through risk analytics. Our projected delinquency rate versus actual delinquency actually are quite well aligned.
다만 그 당시와 크게 달라진 상황은 한국은행의 기준금리 조정으로 인해서 전체적으로 부담하고 있는 여신금리가 저희가 생각하는 것보다는 급격하게 증가를 하고 있어서 여전히 건전성에 대한 걱정을 하고 있습니다.
Of course, we continue to be concerned about asset soundness as the BOK actually did increase benchmark rates significantly. Relative to our initial expectations, the amount of interest on loans that have to be borne by the borrowers has increased substantially.
중신용 대출을 포함한 신용대출의 비즈니스가 지속적으로 계속될 수 있으려면 저희는 그 적정 수준의 수익 확보가 필요하다고 생각을 해서, NIM의 결정에 있어서도 저희가 이 부분을 고려해서 연체율 상승으로 인한 부분을 수익성 확보로 커버할 수 있는 이런 논의를 동시에 진행하려고 합니다.
In order to run a sustainable credit loan and mid to low credit loan business, it's very important to acquire an adequate level of margins or profitability first. This will be factored into our determination for adequate NIM level. We want to secure a level of profitability that can offset and cover any increase in delinquency.
We have been preparing many different initiatives to secure asset soundness, and of course, using various accumulated data to feed into our credit scoring model for further improvement. Our KakaoBank scoring system actually has been found to be very highly discriminating, delivering good improved results. We think going forward that this will also have a major impact in improving overall asset soundness. Regarding the NPL number, if I understood your question correctly, I will provide my following answer, but if I did not understand the question, please do contact our team after today's call and we will follow up with you.
As far as I understand, for the Jeonse and monthly lease loans targeted at the youth, it's called Chungnyeon Jeonse, they are backed by the Korea Housing Finance Corporation through, you know, 100% payment guaranteed. As far as we understand, by definition, they fall out of the scope of the definition of NPL. But again, if this is not your question, please get in touch with us.
Yes, if there are no further questions, we will conclude the third quarter 2022 conference call for KakaoBank. I'd like to thank all analysts, investors. Thank you very much for joining us today.