Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Fubon Financial's third quarter 2021 financial results. At this time, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Questions will be taken at the end of the presentation. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now, I will hand the call over to your host, Ms. Amanda Wang, Investor Relations Officer of Fubon Financial Holdings. You may begin.
Okay. Welcome. Thank you for joining Fubon Financial's conference call today. There will be two sessions in the call, including the first nine months operation performance, and followed by the Q&A session hosted by the President, Mr. Harn, and the management team. Firstly, please turn to page four of the presentation slide. Fubon net profit for nine months grew by over 90% to TWD 130 billion. The EPS also reached a level high that the financial holding company appears. The net worth assets both reached a record high. Behind that, the main growth driver comes from Fubon Life as its investment performance improved from capital gain and also hedge cost improvement. In terms of the premium, it ranks up to across key metrics.
In Taipei Fubon Bank, its loan growth of over 13%, and behind that, one of the key drivers is the SME loans that increased by over 20%. In Taipei Fubon Bank this quarter, we recognized TWD 1.2 billion of gains from Nutmeg, that is under other comprehensive income of fintech companies. Credit card business, we also saw a double-digit Y-o-Y growth to expand our customer base. In page five, Fubon Insurance net profit growth that was up by over 50%, also mainly due to the investment return. Meanwhile, its size scale grow continuously, with a premium market share of over 25%. In Fubon Securities, its net profit reached over TWD 5.8 billion and up by over 97%. It's attributable to the market turnover increase and also the brokerage market share at over 6.2%.
In terms of the ESG achievement, it's our honor to continuously be the constituent of the DJSI Index, and also the Emerging Market Index. In terms of the actions we take across our subsidiaries to build a low-carbon business model, in Taipei Fubon Bank, we have a first case of green credit certified by a third-party institution. In Fubon Life, it's the first time we publish a corporate sustainability report and also institutional investor stewardship report. In terms of the green policies we did in Fubon Insurance, it exceeds over TWD 800 million. Okay. If we turn to page six, it's an update of the fundraising and mergers timeline. As you may know, end of October, we already complete the issuance of the fundraising. Also, we went through the EGM's approval for the merger between the two holding companies.
Next, we are prepared for the submission for regulatory's approval, we still expect the merger's completion for the two holding companies by first quarter next year. Followed by the merger of the two companies, the subsidiaries that we also aim to complete by end of next year. In page seven, the net profits strengthen as we just highlight earlier, it continues into October, which we have a year to October net profit of over TWD 135 billion and EPS reach TWD 11.81. That also reflects our new share issuance from the fundraising we mentioned earlier. In page eight, the net profits growth across subsidiaries, you can see from the right-hand side that the profit contribution from Fubon Life reached 73%. In page nine, the total assets of the holding company reach over TWD 10 trillion and up by over 13%.
The net worth also increased by over 28%. That lead to our book value per common share basis of TWD 68 per share. It further go up to TWD 68.84 as of October. In page 10, the ROA and ROE of the holding company, as a result, grow along with some earning growth. Next, let's move on to page 12 regarding Fubon Life. The total premium decline mainly reflects the renewal premiums coming down by 24.9% because of the paid up of some policies with a shorter payment periods. Overall speaking, our premiums performance continue to rank top two in the market. Page 13, first-year premium increased by over 23% Q3 versus Q2. That's mainly on back of the post-pandemic recovery. While accumulated first-year premium growth rate is only 2.8%, the growth area mainly comes from the investment-linked and interest-sensitive annuity, while the traditional life policy came down.
In page 14, FYPE came down as a result of the product mix and VNB as well. While the quarter-over-quarter performance, we continue to see 6% from FYPE and also about 2.8% growth from VNB. In page 15, the FYPE's contribution from the bank assurance remain our key channel. That's a total of 62.5%. In FYPE, we can see the main contributor comes from the tied agent and also Taipei Fubon Bank. In page 16, the investment asset in Fubon Life, up by 4.2% year-to-date. The portfolio mix mainly reflects a slightly higher cash position in Q3 that reflect the market volatility. We will gradually deploy into overseas fixed income and also domestic equities. In page 17, in terms of overseas fixed income, we continue to deploy into investment-grade corporate bonds, mainly in North America.
In page 18, in terms of the investment income, the return from the bottom of this table shows that both before and after hedge basis, we show the sequential improvement. That reflects the capital gain and also the hedge cost improvement. While the recurring investment income is a decrease, going forward, we will focus on the asset deployment to enhance the yield. In page 19, on the upper left-hand side, recurring hedging cost shows improvement in Q3 down to 14 basis points, and cumulatively, 22 basis points. While on the lower left-hand side, we can see the return before and after hedge basis is a decline that mainly reflects the TWD's appreciation and also the realized gains actions. In page 20, the spread for cost of liability versus investment return, also the break-even point versus recurring return after hedge, actually both shows improvement and spread widening.
For the cost of liability versus investment return, we reached 253 basis points gain, positive spread, the break-even point spread is about 50 basis points. In page 21, the unrealized balance in Fubon Life slightly came down quarter-over-quarter. That's mainly due to the realized gain and to a lesser extent is a month-to-month effect. The balance starts to show recovery in October and also year-to-date. In page 23, let's move on to Taipei Fubon Bank. The total revenue quarter-over-quarter shows improvement of over 14% growth, primarily driven by the fee income recovery that grows by over 20%. The net interest income also shows a decent growth.
Cumulatively, it is a slight edge to a slightly down of 0.7%, mainly reflects the pandemic impact in the first half and therefore a decline in the fee income as well as the credit card campaign. In page 24, let's take a look at the loan growth. The bank grew by 13.8% compared to the industry average is outperformed, which the market grew at about 6.4%. By business line, in page 25, the corporate lending growth mainly driven by its NT dollar loan business, especially from SMEs segment, that is a growth of over 22%. The foreign currency lending, it also shows a recovery of a positive growth compared to last quarter's performance was a contraction.
In page 26, the retail business line mortgage also delivered over 10% growth. The personal unsecured loan, we see the personal credit of over 27% is the key growth driver. In page 27, the deposit side of the bank, we can see here is a growth of over 15% on blended average for NT dollar and foreign currency, and they outperform the market growth of 9%. For the LDR, the NT dollar LDR shows sequential growth, while the foreign currency's deployment came down, primarily due to the foreign currency deposits, the growth was higher. In page 28, the net interest spread came down by 1 basis point, and the net interest margin came down by 3 basis points, mainly reflect the deposit growth from the foreign currency side.
In page 29, the asset quality over remains stable. As you can see, NPL and coverage ratio here. Further look into by business line in page 30, we can see across corporate and the retail lines, the asset quality remains stable. On the right-hand side, we can see the credit cost increase quarter-over-quarter that mainly reflect the general provision along with the loan growth.
In page 31, in credit card business, the active cards and also the card spending both shows over 11% growth that reflect our strategy to expand our customer base. While the per card spending monthly basis, we remain the highest among the top five card issuers. In page 32, the fee income was down by 14.8% on the left-hand side. That was a result of the wealth management fee income and also the credit card's marketing expenses increase. While on the right-hand side, we can see the further details of the wealth management fees composition, while it's up from a quarter-over-quarter basis of over 26% on back of the recovery from the pandemic, and therefore the sales volume and also yield enhancement. In page 33, overseas branches performance of the bank came down year-over-year.
That mainly reflects a more cautious underwriting policy and also the rate cuts effect and therefore can lead to this lower contribution. In page 35, let's move on to Fubon Insurance. It's a direct written premium growth of 14.6%, largely driven by the personal line increase of over 20%. And out of which, a COVID-related policy was one of the new growth contributor. That was around TWD 4 billion year- to- September and cover slightly over half of the market volume. And along with the growth, our market share continuously being the market number one and also the underwriting result shows improvement. As you can see, the combined ratio reached 89.6%. In page 37, in Fubon Securities, the profit and also revenue both shows a strong growth.
That's on back of the very high market turnover of nearly TWD 500 billion year- to- September, and also our market share gain in brokerage business. Last section in page 39, regarding Fubon Bank (China). The volume-wise growth of over 18% in loan and 12% in assets, that's beneficiary from the capital raising of TWD 1 billion that we complete in June. In page 40, from the P&L perspective, the net interest margin increased by 43 basis points on back of the funding and also loan structure improvement, while the net profits are largely flattish, mainly because of the rising swap costs and also a lower treasury income this year. While the asset quality-wise, it remains stable, and you can see from the lower left-hand side, its NPL ratio continue to show improvement as well as the coverage ratio.
Okay, and finally, in page 41, here we prepared a QR code, a survey, and urge for your participation. Or alternatively, welcome to contact our team to share with your feedback. Okay, and next, I'll pass the mic over to Miss Wang, and she will host the Q&A session for you today. Thank you.
Hi, everyone. This is Sophia Wang, President Harn is going to join us shortly. Right now, I'm acting temporary. Right now, we would like to take your questions. Thanks.
Thank you. Participants over the phone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one. Please unmute your phone, and when prompted, please record your name, for it is required to introduce your question. Again, that is star one to ask a question over the phone. Let's give it a moment while we wait for our questions to queue up. We do have a few questions just queued up. Speakers, one moment please. Let me gather their names. Thank you. Thank you for patiently waiting. Our first question over the phone will be from the line of Steven. Your line is now open, sir. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, management. Thank you for the update. Just a couple of questions here. On the life side, if I'm not mistaken, I think in the Chinese section, we sort of talked about that the company expect a recovery or resuming growth in 2022. I was just curious, what about in Q4? Is that sort of happening already from your point of view? What would be the main driver of that other than base effect? Is it more on the volume side or from both volume and margin? That's on the life insurance. On the bank, could we sort [audio distortion] sequential growth, in Q3.
What will be the driver of fee income, going forward, say, in the next three to six months? Can I assume that those would come from, say, continuous strength in insurance sales, mutual fund sales, as well as some credit card recovery? Thanks.
Regarding to your first questions, we do have a stronger momentum on the insurance sales. We would like to have Tsai-Ling to answer this question further. Thank you.
In the fourth quarter, as we know, the whole market is still focused on single premium investment, unit-linked type of product. We don't see any change the last quarter. For next year, we are push more on the agency channel and try to change the product mix, focus more on the high margin product.
Okay. Regarding to the questions towards the banks, NIM, fee income and the we would like to have the President, Roman, to answer the question. Thank you.
Okay. This one is pretty loud. Okay, let me start with your question about NIM. The NIM up to September this year was 1.06%, which is 2 basis point lower than the number in 2020. Mainly because of our corporate bond investment, because of the interest rate reduction in the global market. This two basis point NIM reduction still not affected our net income revenue. Our total NII growth for the first three quarters increased by 7%. Mainly because of our total loan portfolio increased by 14% in the first three quarters. Contributed by the SME lending increased by 22%, and personal unsecured lending portfolio increased by 28%. Foreign currency denominated corporate bond investment portfolio increased by 23%. Regarding the fee, the first three quarters, the wealth management fee reduced by 11%, even though the sales volume increased by 16%.
Mainly because of the first half of the year, Taiwan market impacted by the COVID-19, and we proactively implement almost 50% our sales working from home. We also encourage customers come to us through the online channel rather than the branch channel. We sold quite conservative, straightforward product to the customers. Even the sales volume increased by double- digit, but the fee revenue also impacted in that regard. However, in the third quarter of this year, our wealth management sales increased by 20% compared to the second quarter, and fee revenue from the wealth management increased by 26% compared to second quarter. Overall, for the whole year, our wealth management fee can maintain the same level compared to the last year.
Regarding the credit card, we see very strong momentum online transaction, many in the credit card market in the first quarter this year, thanks to the pandemic. People tend to consume through the online channels. We provide some of the benefit to our cardholders. Our credit card issuance increased quite substantially in the first three quarters. Even though the fee revenue, if you calculate the credit card on the standalone basis dropped, the cross-sell from the credit card customer in online wealth management as well as personal unsecured lending, which also contribute more than TWD 1 billion cross-sale revenue for the bank. Net, we are still satisfied with the momentum of our credit card business, including the cross-sale revenues.
That's great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question will be from the line of Jemmy Huang. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have three questions on me. First one, in terms of net interest margin, I didn't really hear clearly, in terms of full- year guidance for this year. Are we still targeting flat year-on-year for the whole year, or we probably will stay at somewhere around 1.06% for the whole year? Second question is on dividend policy. Just trying to understand, I think when we announced the acquisition of Jih Sun, we do see some synergy from the capital position parts. Trying to understand whether after the completion of the consolidation in the first quarter next year, for this kind of capital efficiency, will that provide any more flexibility to our dividend policy, and how would we materialize that? The final question will be on your life insurance operation in Korea.
I think Korea is going to adopt IFRS 17 in the beginning of 2023. Just trying to understand whether you have any plan to inject more capital into the subsidiary in the coming 12 months or so. Thanks.
Okay. As I mentioned earlier, the first three quarters, our net interest margin revenue increased by 7%. We see this 7% revenue growth can maintain all the way up to the year- end. The total year indication for the net interest margin revenue remains at 7% growth.
Okay. Regarding to the dividend policy, you have asked whether we are going to be affected by the acquisition of Jih Sun. We don't think there will be any impact on the acquisition of Jih Sun Holding Company on our equity capital or dividend payout condition.
Regarding the capital requirement on Fubon Hyundai Life in Korea, we have just injected the capital about $400 million e arlier this year. That amount should be substantial for the IFRS 17 placement. So far, we don't see any need to inject further capital in the next 12 months.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. We do have another question from the line of Steven. Your line is now open, please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for your answers earlier. I just want to follow up with a few questions on the investment side. I guess if I may, I can start with some confirmation of numbers. You disclose the returns by asset class, let's say overseas bonds or domestic bonds and things like that. I know this is not a perfect comparison, but if we were going to look, say the first nine months versus the first six months, I guess what's clear is that the overseas returns have come down a little bit for that comparison, the domestic portfolio has gone up. I just want to understand what's driving that. Within the overseas, I believe both equities and bonds went down. Are those just simply because of the market fluctuations, or is there something else inside it?
To double-check, if I'm not mistaken, your bond ETFs are disclosed within the domestic bond classification, not domestic stocks, correct? That's sort of part one. Then part two of the question on investment is, we're sort of more than halfway through in 4Q right now. In terms of, say, investment gains or trading gains for the remaining of the quarter, are we still fairly optimistic, say, compared to in third quarter? Then the third part is on your view on Taiwanese stocks. I think in the Chinese call you mentioned that you're quite optimistic, so I just want to double-check that. You did say you expect higher dividend income from Taiwanese stocks in 2022.
Can I just confirm, is that coming from just organic growth of cash dividends, or you're thinking about higher allocation in Taiwanese stocks, so hence your dividend income will increase as well? That's all. Thank you.
Okay. [inaudible], please answer the questions. Thanks.
Okay. Because your questions it's quite long list, so I did not catch your story. I can just try to answer some I already remember that. The first one is about our optimistic on the stock market from Taiwan. I think the answer is confirmed, and it's actually the dividend we expect to higher than this year because, you are right, also we will have a higher location on domestic stock market and also maybe some offshore market, and it's because the allocation will increase. Also it's not the prediction because we think the corporate earnings we expect overall will be higher compared to two year for the whole industry, that means all Taiwan markets. That means we also expect stock dividend payout will be also higher. These will be two drivers to increase our forecast on our cash dividend.
Sorry, would you just repeat your question that I haven't answered?
Sure. Yeah. The first part was mainly about, I think if you compare your investment return by the breakdown, say, overseas versus domestic, it seems that if I compare the first nine months versus the first half, there has been a decrease in the overseas portfolio while there's an increase in domestic portfolio. I can imagine for domestic, it could be because of cash dividends, but just wondering what's happening with the overseas portfolio. Within the overseas portfolio, that downtrend is pretty consistent in both bonds and equities. I just want to see. If I'm not mistaken, from a quarter-on-quarter, let's say June versus September, I think the bond yield and stock market sort of went up and down, so it was kind of flattish in the third quarter.
I was just curious, were there anything specific that was causing that, or simply it's because of the base effect?
Okay, I got you. I think basically, in terms of offshore bonds, I think the decrease of the allocation is not quite right. It's because actually we sell some position, but we also increase some position. I guess what you see is because the exposure is based on market values. Sometimes it will reflect on the bond price change. I think that in terms of offshore bond, we do not have so much position change at that time. In terms of the offshore equity, yes, we continue decrease and almost we can say we decrease some exposure especially in China, is because we have some concern on their economic situation. We decrease our offshore equity during, or maybe from this year, we keep downsizing at that part. It's because I think it's the question about asset allocation.
Let me add some comments here.
Yeah. Okay.
I think the first nine months return.
Hello?
Hello. Hi. Let me add on some comments.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. I think for the nine months of return for domestic equity, that actually also reflects the cash dividend income for the first six months. You mentioned earlier that include a much lesser component from that cash dividend income. When we do annualized return on these slides, that will show this kind of sequential increase if you make such comparison. I think that's one of the key drivers here.
I see. Similarly, the overseas bonds return went down to, say, 5.07% versus 5.74% in the first six months.
Yeah.
Like you said.
Okay. Yeah
that's just because of the denominator grew, right?
Well, that's one thing, and also the overseas fixed income capital gain, we are more aggressive in the first half, but not so much action in the third quarter. When we do the annualized basis return, that it will show result like this.
Okay. That's great. Sorry, if I could just squeeze one thing quickly. You may not have this offhand, but everybody's thinking about further increase in bond yields and rate hikes. Is there a sort of sensitivity figures that you could share, say, for every 25 basis points in bond yields? What would that impact your, say, group net profit or new business value as it stands right now? Yeah. Just for reference. I know it won't be like
Well, it's highly sensitive to all sorts of assumptions to come up with this calculation.
Yeah.
I think it's only based on a very hypothetical basis. That is, we assume a few key assumptions behind that our ballpark calculation will be somewhere about TWD 800 million for every 25 basis points rate increase in life portfolio.
Oh, TWD 800 million ?
NT dollar, yes.
Increase.
We have to emphasize that under quite a few assumptions it's a hypothetical basis.
Sure. Sorry, and that TWD 800 million, it's just for l ife profit or it's for the group net profit?
For the Life NII. Yeah.
Life NII. Okay.
If you're also curious about the mark-to-market impact on the URCG, that is disclosed in the audit report that you can reference from there.
Yep. Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We do have another question from the line of Jemmy Huang. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Thanks. Just one more question from me, is that I think when you are guiding that next year your FYP, you will try to shift back to the traditional policies. Should we expect the break-even point to increase on a year-on-year basis as a result? Thanks.
We don't expect the break-even rate will change substantially. We expect it will keep the current level.
I see. In theory, if you are selling more traditional policies, supposedly you will incur higher first year loads, right?
Yeah, the cost of liability will not change too much next year. If the costs stay level, the break-even should not change too much.
I see. Thank you.
Thank you. We no longer have any questions on queue, speakers. Please proceed.
Operator, can we confirm again? Is there any question on the queue?
We no longer have any questions on queue, ma'am. Please proceed.
Okay. In that case, we will thank you for your participation for this call today. If there's any further questions, please feel free to contact the IR team.
Thank you.
Okay.
That concludes.
Thank you, operator. Please end the call, please.
Actually, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you everyone for participating. You may now disconnect.