Good afternoon and good morning to those in Europe. Welcome to Cathay Financial Holdings 2024 first quarter analyst meeting. I am CK Lee, CEO of Cathay Financial Holdings. Today, I will host the meeting. Thank you for joining us today. In the beginning, I would like to introduce the senior managers who are on the line.
Today we have Mr. Chen, CFO of Cathay Financial Holdings. Mr. Abel Lin, Managing Senior EVP of Cathay Life. Mr. Kevin Hu, Senior EVP of Cathay United Bank. Before we begin the presentation, I would like to share some highlights from our first quarter. I am pleased to report that our first quarter earnings, which is TWD 37.6 billion, achieving 73% of last year's full year earnings.
Our bank subsidiary delivered another record high first quarter earnings of TWD 10.4 billion, with both net interest income and fee income showing robust growth. Life's net profit soared to TWD 25.1 billion, surpassing last year's full year earnings. Thanks to strong investment income, as the life continues its value-driven product strategy, which annualized the new premium and value of new business growth by 28% and 32% year-over-year respectively.
High CSM protection product is showing strong growth momentum. Additionally, our subsidiaries, Cathay Century, Cathay Securities, and Cathay SITE also achieved record high first quarter earnings. The board has approved a TWD 2 cash dividend per share, reflecting a 61.7% payout ratio and dividend yield around 4% upon announcement.
We continue to maintain the robust capital position to support ongoing massive growth. Now I will hand over the call to Charlie from our IR team to present the detailed first quarter results and announce the new 2023 embedded value details. Charlie, please.
Let's start with the business overview on page four, which provides a quick highlight on each subsidiary. Cathay United Bank set a record high earnings for the first quarter with 14% growth year-over-year, showing robust growth. The interest income grew steadily as the quality remained benign.
Net fee income grew 43% year-over-year, driven by strong growth in wealth management fee and credit card fees. Cathay Life adhere to a value-driven product strategy. APE and VNB grew 28% and 32% year-over-year respectively, driven by strong sales growth in long-term regular premium products. Returning yield increased 8 basis points year-over-year. Overall investment performance was strong. After hedging, investment yield reached 4.39%. Book value continued to rise, with equity to asset ratio of 8.8%.
Cathay Century, the general insurance subsidiary, premium income grew 16% year-on-year with market share of 13%. Asset management subsidiary, Cathay SITE, set a record high first quarter earnings, ranked number one in AUM, amounting to TWD 1.83 trillion.
Cathay Securities continued to increase market share in domestic brokerage business. Please look at page five, Cathay Financial Holdings net income and EPS. Cathay Financial Holdings net income reached TWD 37.6 billion, the second-highest record for the first quarter. All subsidiaries show strong core business momentum.
Earnings per share was TWD 2.6. Page six shows subsidiaries net income and ROE. Cathay United Bank, Cathay Century, Cathay SITE, and Cathay Securities each achieved historical high earnings for the first quarter. Cathay Life first quarter 2024 net income has surpassed 2023 full-year figure. Recurring income sustained year-on-year growth. Investment performance was strong. Underwriting profit remained steady. Please turn to page seven to see the book value of Cathay Financial Holdings.
The consolidated book value of the holding company increased to TWD 875 billion, supported by earnings contribution and a rise in the equity market. Book value per share increased to TWD 52.4. Pages nine and 10 show our overseas expansion. Cathay Financial Holdings continues to expand overseas business through deepening business operation and digital transformation.
Our Vietnam branch launched digital retail banking in March, introducing Cathay United Bank Vietnam app and digital consumer loans. Cambodia subsidiary continued to expand customer base via digital applications. Cathay Life Vietnam's total premium increased 14% year-on-year. Cathay Century Vietnam shows steady growth.
As for the subsidiaries operation in China, Cathay United Bank's China subsidiary focus on industries and customers with growth potential and expanded cross-border business. For Cathay Life's joint venture in China, the total premium grew 22% year-on-year. Please turn to page 12 for more detail about the banking performance.
Cathay United Bank delivered robust loan growth, with mortgage and consumer loans both showing double-digit growth. Total loan balance increased 13% year-on-year to TWD 2.4 trillion. Deposit grew 6% year-on-year to TWD 3.4 trillion.
Maintained the advantage of high-demand deposit ratio of 65%. Interest yields are shown on page 13. First quarter 2024 net interest margin and interest spread increased 6 and 5 basis points quarter-on-quarter respectively.
The increase was due to the lower funding cost, resulting from a decrease in foreign currency deposits. Page 14 shows asset quality. Cathay United Bank maintains low NPL ratio at 11 basis points and coverage ratio of 1,457%. Gross provision was TWD 2.4 billion. Majority was the general provision against new loan growth.
Recovery was around TWD 300 million. Please turn to page 15 for SME and foreign currency loans. SME loan balance increased to TWD 325 billion, accounting for 14% of the total loan. Foreign currency loan balance was TWD 229 billion, growing 7% quarter-on-quarter. To grow foreign currency loan while ensuring asset quality. Page 16 shows offshore earnings.
Offshore earnings were down to TWD 1.4 billion due to a high year-on-year base from a single case recovery in the first quarter of 2023. Please turn to page 17 for fee income. Fee income grew 43% year-on-year, to TWD 7.7 billion, driven by strong wealth management fees from robust sales growth across wealth management products, and nearly 60% growth in credit card fees due to changes in the credit card spending mix.
Page 18 shows the breakdown of wealth management fees. Wealth management fee income was TWD 4.6 billion, growing 14% year-on-year. All products show strong sales growth. Fees for mutual fund, security products, and bancassurance fees grew by 44%, 92%, and 30% year-on-year respectively. Please move to page 20 and 21 for Cathay Life premium performance.
Total premium was TWD 107 billion, showing a modest 4% year-on-year decline. The premium of protection type products grew 8% year-on-year, supporting the contractual service margins. Page 21. First-year premium, FYP, was TWD 27 billion, declining year-on-year due to the sales of investment-linked products slowed down, resulting from regulatory change in 2023.
While annualized premium, APE, grew 28% year-on-year, attributable to the strong FYP growth in traditional long-term regular premium products, in which high CSM accidental and health products' FYP increased 74% year-on-year. Page 22 shows the value of new business.
Value of new business was TWD 9 billion, up 32% year-on-year, driven by the strong FYP growth in traditional long-term regular premium products. VNB margin, VNB over FYP, increased year-on-year to 33%, owing to a lower FYP contribution from investment-linked products.
Page 23 shows the cost of liability and break-even asset yield. The cost of liability remained flattish quarter-on-quarter at 3.77%. The break-even asset yield continued to improve. Please look at page 24 for the investment portfolio. Cathay Life's total investment reached TWD 7.8 trillion as of the end of first quarter.
Overseas investment accounted for around 70%. On the right-hand side, the investment yield on domestic equity and international equity were 15% and 19% respectively. Investment yield are shown on page 25 and 26. Overall investment performed well. After hedging investment yield increased year-on-year to 4.39%. The investment team seized the opportunity to realize capital gains upon the rise in equity markets and adjusted long-term asset allocation in private equity position.
On page 26, left-hand side, the pre-hedging return yield increased 8 basis points year-over-year to 3.23%, driven by expanded position and higher yield in fixed income, with interest income showing sustained growth. Annualized hedging cost was 1.21% for the first quarter. Cost of traditional hedging tools remained high due to the elevated Taiwan dollar and U.S. dollar interest spread.
The foreign currency volatility reserve increased to TWD 32.6 billion, driven by the depreciation of Taiwan dollar in the first quarter. Cathay Life will continue its flexible and dynamic hedging strategy to ensure the effective control of the hedging cost. Please turn to page 27 for the regional breakdown of overseas fixed income.
For overseas fixed income investment, Cathay Life allocated 51% in North America, 17% in Europe, and the rest are in Asia Pacific and other countries. Page 28 shows the book value and unrealized gain of financial assets. Cathay Life's book value increased year- to- date to TWD 687 billion, benefiting from the earnings contribution and the increase in unrealized gain or loss.
Next, please turn to pages 32 to 34 for the performance of Cathay Century. Cathay Century's premium income grew 16% year-on-year to TWD 8.9 billion. Market share was 13%. Page 34, the gross combined ratio and retained combined ratio each declined year-on-year as the impact of pandemic insurance ended. This is our first quarter operating results. The next session, we'll update the 2023 embedded value and appraisal value.
Please turn to page 36 for the summary of embedded value and appraisal value, major components. In this table, you can see the asset yield assumption for various insurance policies. We increased the equivalent investment yield by 1 basis point to 4.19%. Based on the new assumption, Cathay Life's 2023 embedded value increased 15% year-on-year to TWD 1,140 billion. Equivalent to TWD 77.7 per share of the holding company. Cathay Life's appraisal value as of 2023 was TWD 1.39 trillion, equivalent to TWD 94.95 per share of the holding company. We estimated the 2024 value for one year new business of TWD 28 billion and apply multiple of 8.8 when deriving value of new business.
In the following pages, you can see more detailed analysis on 2023 movement of each EV component. You can refer to page 43 and 44 for the scenario of impact from various investment yields and discount rates. While on page 45, you can also see summary table for year-on-year comparison. We hope the information is useful to you. This is the end of the presentation. Now let's open for Q&A.
Good afternoon, this is Grace Chen. Before the Q&A session, I would like to give a summary from the Chinese session. This afternoon, there were many questions asked by the audience surrounding our first quarter operation and outlook guidance for major key drivers.
For bank, we maintain a high- single- digit growth target for loans driven by all sectors, including corporate, mortgage, and consumer loans. In the first quarter, the credit cost increased, mainly due to the general provision for new loan growth. Full year's credit cost is likely to stay at regular level, like 2022, below 25 basis points. NIM increased quarter-on-quarter to 1.46%, thanks to better deposit structure.
For the full year, we expect our NIM to be at least 1.4%, assuming two Fed rate cuts and a Taiwan Central Bank policy rates . Net fee income in the first quarter was higher than expected, so we revise up our outlook and anticipate double-digit growth in fees for this year.
For Cathay Life, continuing to build the CSM remains our top priority. First quarter CSM grew over 30% year- on- year to exceed TWD 24 billion. We expect first year premiums for traditional products to show double-digit growth for the year. However, we are more conservative in the FYP outlook for investment-linked policies.
Due to regulatory changes last year, we were the only life insurance company to seek growth in FYP for investment-linked policies, which create a high base for comparison. In terms of the recurring yield, the interest income and the rental income will continue to grow. Cash dividends will depend on the market situation as we focus on the total return for stocks.
We expect the recurring yield to be at least at last year's level of 3.45% or slightly better this year. We will continue to enhance our recurring income to achieve 3.5% recurring yield prior to IFRS 17's adoption. Claims costs remain our regular guidance of 1%-1.5%. In terms of capital, our capital position was robust, with RBC ratio over 300%.
With the regulators transition measures, our current ICS ratio is well above the regulatory requirement and is as strong as our RBC level. We aim to build a strong capital buffer under ICS framework. This buffer will enhance our resilience against the future market volatility and ensure our robust performance following the IFRS 17 and ICS adoption. These are the key highlights.
Okay, thanks, Grace.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. If you wish to ask the question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and you will enter the queue. After you are announced, please ask your question.
Should you wish to cancel your question, you may press star two. Thank you. Now, please press star key and number one on your keypad if you would like to ask a question. Thank you. As a reminder, please press star one on your keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our first question will be coming from Jamie Huang of JPMorgan. Go ahead, please.
Hi, thanks for the presentation. I have three questions. First one is on bank's investment income, because we know swap revenue should be down year-on-year, but your total investment income at Cathay United Bank still increase quite meaningfully. So just trying to understand whether this investment income is coming from equity trading, fixed income trading, or anything else? Second question is for Cathay Life. Could we also get the single rate equivalent for VNB for 2023?
The second question for Life is, if we're talking about the new FX reserve mechanism, and if Cathay choose to do based on the proposal, maybe the offsetting factors for the mark-to-market gains and losses would be 100%, does it mean that if you choose to do so, that will actually increase the volatility on your qualified capital under ICS? Thanks.
This is Kevin from the bank. I would say the incremental investment income mainly coming from the fixed income desk, which account for, like, more than 60% of the incremental revenue. Another, like, 22% coming from derivative product, and another, like, 15%-16% coming from the equity desk. Thank you.
Hi, Jamie. The first one, for the new business, the equivalent rate for 2023 is 4.62%, comparison year 2022, 4.6, up 2 basis points. Secondly, the FX reserve right now is taken into consideration ICS capital, like RBC. If we, the new mechanism that we expect the FX reserve will be increased, this is our purpose. We think that once we apply for the new mechanism adoption, then we will expect it, the FX reserve should be increased in the long run. We think that will be helpful for our ICS capital ratio.
I think if in the long run, FX reserve could increase, that should come from your earnings contribution and also maybe more favorable mark-to-market impacts to beef up the FX reserve. One way or the other, it either come from originally maybe should be contributed to your profits, but now contributed to FX reserve. Is that fair statement?
Yes. Yeah. Exactly. For the income, for the profit, if we don't apply the new mechanism, then because we still have 40% that can have FX gain, so that part will go into our profit. In net income, that will be far helpful comparison the new mechanism.
On the ICS standard, I think this is the same because the profit and FX reserve will be the shift. Contribution to ICS, I think this is the same. The income statement for the new mechanism, that will be less, but the less part will transfer to our FX reserve. To the ICS ratio, I think will be the same.
I want to, well, to highlight the application term, it will not be the announcement we will immediately apply. That's not. We will determine the proper timing, especially the Taiwan dollar versus U.S. dollar, the currency rate. What's the long-term view. Our investment team will decide the right time to apply.
I see. Thank you.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are now in question and answer session. Okay, there appears to be no further questions at this point. Mr. Lee, can we close the conference call now?
Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your participation in Cathay Financial Holdings conference call. If you have any further question, please feel free to contact our IR team. Thank you.
Thank you, President Lee. Ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for your participation in Cathay Financial Holding Company's conference call. You may now disconnect. Thank you and goodbye.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Thank you.