I'd like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all o f you for your kind support to and understanding of our company, and attending the presentation on our financial results out of your busy schedules. Now, please go to page three of the presentation on financial results for the first half of fiscal year ending March 2027. I will go over item number one and give you a summary of our financial results. Later, Mr. Kioka, Chief PR and IR Officer, will go over item number two and give you supplementary information on interest repayment, provision for bad debt, and financial expenses. Please go to page four. Consolidated receivables, as the bar on the very right shows, grew 3.6%, or around JPY 100 billion year-on-year to JPY 3 trillion JPY 15.3 billion, thanks to strong new customer acquisition and additional borrowing among existing borrowers in the domestic business and weak yen.
With JPY 3 trillion of receivables, which we achieved for the first time, we are on track to achieve the full-year target of 6.5% growth. I will give you a breakdown of receivables by business line later in the presentation. Please move on to page five. Consolidated operating revenue, shown on the left, grew 8% to JPY 178.9 billion, exceeding the first-half target by 2.4%, thanks to receivables growth and weak yen. Having achieved 50.3% of the full-year target, we are on track. Operating profit, shown on the right, grew 6% year-on-year to JPY 57.2 billion, which is 10.8% greater than the first-half target. This is mainly attributable to a lower reserve ratio with the improvement in the quality of loan asset in the loan business, which resulted in less provision for bad debt than we initially assumed. Having achieved 58.5% of full-year target, we have done better than originally planned.
Profit attributable to the owners of the parent, shown at the bottom right, was JPY 36.6 billion, 10.7% greater than first-half target and 57.4% of full-year guidance. I will go over receivables, revenue, and profit by business segment in the next page and beyond. Please go to page six. Firstly, I'm going to talk about receivables outstanding in the Loan and Credit Card Business compared to the Personal Card Loan Market. Turning to the left-hand side of the slide, please find the evolution of the non-bank market. It is 16.5% larger than where it was back in fiscal year ended March 2020. Turning to the right-hand side of the slide for Acom, to offer greater convenience to our customers, we issue cards which have both loan and credit card functions. The receivables you find on this page are loan and credit card balances combined.
With receivables 31.6% greater than where they were in fiscal year ended March 2020, the Loan and Credit Card Business outgrew the market by more than 15 percentage points as of September. Receivables outstanding grew 8.4% year-on-year to JPY 1 trillion 204.9 billion as of September, thanks largely to new customer acquisition, strong demand among existing borrowers, and good credit extension with acquisition of income certificates through various campaigns. Please move on to page seven. Operating revenue shown on the left grew 6.6% to JPY 95.8 billion, thanks largely to receivables growth. Operating profit shown on the right increased 7.1% to JPY 32.7 billion due mainly to lower bad debt expenses at Acom. Please turn to page eight for the Guarantee Business. Again, I'm going to talk about how our Guarantee Business has performed compared to the market.
With receivables 4.3% smaller compared to where they were back in fiscal year ended March 2020, the bank market shown on the left has yet to recover to its pre-pandemic level. In contrast, with Guaranteed receivables 23.6% greater than where they were back in fiscal year ended March 2020, our Guarantee Business, as shown on the right, outgrew the market by more than 25 percentage points as of September. Guaranteed receivables grew 7.6% to JPY 1 trillion 523.6 billion as of September, thanks mainly to additional borrowing among existing customers and enhanced collaboration with our existing partners through close communication. Please go to page nine. Operating revenue shown on the left increased 7% to JPY 42.5 billion, thanks mainly to receivables growth.
On the other hand, operating profit shown on the right dropped 12.1% to JPY 10.2 billion due largely to an increase in bad debt expenses and an increase in a change in provision for loss on guarantees at Acom. Later, Mr. Kioka will give you details of provision for bad debt. Please turn to page 10. Last but not least, let's turn to international operations. Here, I'm going to touch on EASY BUY, our Thai business. The non-bank market in Thailand, shown on the left, contracted by 1% year-on-year. Turning to the right-hand side of the page, you can find EASY BUY's receivables outstanding and the evolution of its market share, which is illustrated by the solid line. Receivables outstanding decreased moderately to THB 54.9 billion.
This is largely because a government relief program introduced during the pandemic ended, and the proportion of the loan book subject to lending regulations increased. While growing loan book is challenging in the current environment, EASY BUY has maintained its market share as it gains new customers by leveraging its number one position. Please go to page 11. Operating revenue, shown on the left, came down by 1.3% to THB 7 billion because of a decrease in receivables. Operating profit, on the other hand, grew 9.6% to THB 2.8 billion, as shown on the right, thanks mainly to a decrease in provision for bad debts. A reduction in bad debt expenses thanks to a lower delinquency rate with improved loan recovery is mainly responsible for the decrease in provision for bad debt. Please turn to page 12.
Our basic capital policy, as is mentioned at the top, is to maintain good financial health and expand profitability for sustainable growth of corporate value and pay stable and sustainable dividends. As shown in the center, we target equity to asset of around 23% with Guaranteed receivables included in the total consolidated asset, return on equity of about 10%, and a dividend payout ratio of around 50% in fiscal year ending March 2028. Turning to the right-hand side of the page, please find where those numbers were at the end of September 2026. Equity to asset was 23.2%. Return on equity, which is a metric for profitability, stood at 10.1%.
As for shareholder return, in our effort to pay stable and sustainable dividends, we will pay JPY 11 per share for the first half as planned and another JPY 11 for the second half, which works out to a dividend payout ratio of 54% for the full year. Please skip the next page and go to page 14. Now we have to touch on some of the topics from the first half. First, new customer acquisition. As is shown on the very right, the number of new customers in the first half was 189,000. With a full-year target of 360,000 new accounts, we are ahead of plan. We will try to keep the current rate of customer acquisition in the second half so that we can beat our target. The solid line illustrates cost per acquisition.
It is currently around JPY 48,000, which shows the fact that we continue to drive new customer traffic with great efficiency. Please move on to page 15 for non-performing loans, or NPLs. NPLs, as shown on the very right, stood at JPY 68.6 billion as of September. The solid line shows the evolution of NPL ratio. It recently came down to 6.69%. We have partially switched to an automated voice message for customer contact. This has allowed us to reach a lot more customers with greater efficiency. Moreover, the fact that the proportion of newer borrowers who are more likely to default decreased also helped to lower an NPL ratio. Please go to page 16. Now I am going to talk about revision of fees for credit cards, as shown on the left-hand side of the slide. Recently, there is a growing trend to revise fees in the credit card industry.
Given the current financial conditions and economic environment, we have decided to raise our fee from the current 14.6%- 18%, effective on December 7 of this year. This will boost our annual revenue by about JPY 4 billion. Turning to the right-hand side of the page for operational improvements and digital transformation. At our information meeting on last year's results, I talked about a policy to promote BPR for drastic review of business processes in the Loan and Credit Card Business. We have made good progress on efficiency gains through operational improvements and expect to release around 100 employees annually. Going forward, we will reassign them to growth business areas, which includes secondment to our partner banks to further promote a Guarantee Business to achieve our operational talent allocation for future growth.
With this initiative, we can make growth investments and control costs at the same time and drive productivity gains for the entire organization. Please go to page 17 for international operations. Firstly, turning to the left-hand side of the slide for ACM, our Malaysian business. We have gradually expanded our operating areas in line with our Medium-term Management Plan. We indeed expanded our reach to the entire Malay Peninsula back in July. We have been building business infrastructure so that we can turn the business profitable in the final year of the midterm plan. Going forward, we will try to expand the business and improve its profitability by gaining new customers while keeping the quality of loan assets. Next, I am going to touch on our initiative to enter the Cambodian market.
As we announced in August, we entered into an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of a local microfinance business. We are now in the process of applying for approval from regulators and other necessary procedures and hope to complete the transaction before the end of the current fiscal year. Following the completion of acquisition, we will start preparing for the launch of loan business sometime next fiscal year, where we can leverage our expertise. Please turn to page 18. Lastly, I will talk about human capital. For sustainable growth of our group, we need to respect abilities, ideas, and values of our diverse talent. At the same time, we need to build a rewarding and worker-friendly environment. Based on this idea, we put in place human capital initiatives from three different perspectives, which you can find on the left-hand side of the page.
Firstly, expanding opportunities for growth and new challenges. With employees participating in a new business creation program led by executives and an internal job posting system for employees to pursue desired roles and assignments, we have created opportunities for our staff to voluntarily take on new challenges. Secondly, a system that rewards new challenges and results. In addition to increasing base salaries and the proportion of performance-based pay in bonuses, w e have introduced a system to properly reward staff for taking on challenges. This is all part of effort to build a system to reflect challenges and achievements in staff treatment. Thirdly, sharing code of conduct and dialogues with the management team. We provided opportunities for round table discussions between employees in managerial positions and the President, and implemented a program to instill new code of conduct.
This is how we have tried to help staff and the management team share ideas and have dialogues. These initiatives have helped to enhance job satisfaction among employees, with engagement score improving by 1.5 points year-on-year to 63.7. This result should not be temporary. Instead, we will keep encouraging our staff to voluntarily take on challenges, and at the same time, we will build an environment where each and every one of our employees will be able to fully demonstrate their abilities. When our staff grow, the company grows. With improved productivity for the entire company, we will do our best to achieve sustainable growth of our corporate value. We will do our best to achieve sustainable growth of the three core businesses. I would like to conclude my presentation by asking for your continued support and guidance to our group. Thank you very much.
I am going to go over interest repayment, provision for bad debt, and financial expenses for supplementary information. First, please go to page 29 of the presentation for requests for interest repayment. Turning to the top of the slide, the number of claims for interest repayment in the first half decreased by 42.7% year-on-year to 2,350. This is a greater decline than a year-on-year decrease of around 25%, which we originally assumed for the full year. We hope this trend will continue towards the end of the current fiscal year. Please turn to page 30 for loss on interest repayment. The total drawdown of reserve for loss on interest repayment in the first half dropped 36.9% year-on-year to JPY 4.1 billion. It is a sharper decline than our initial forecast of a decrease of around 25% for the full year.
While the number of customers who are eligible to make claims keeps coming down due to statute of limitations and other factors, we will closely monitor ad activities of some law firms and other trends. Please move on to page 31 for provision for bad debts. Consolidated provision for bad debt shown on the left increased 9.9% year-on-year to JPY 58.3 billion due to an increase at Acom. Provision for bad debt at EASY BUY shown on the right dropped 1.3% year-on-year to JPY 10.8 billion. This is largely attributable to lower bad debt expenses due to decrease in receivables outstanding and better control over delinquency. Please go to page 32. Provision for bad debt on a non-consolidated basis at Acom shown on the left increased by 7.8% to JPY 41.3 billion.
While bad debt expenses increased by JPY 1.9 billion, a change in allowance for doubtful accounts was a decrease of JPY 400 million, and a change in provision for loss on guarantees was an increase of JPY 1.4 billion. I would like to explain what is behind the increase in bad debt expenses and a change in provision for loss on Guarantees. Bad debt expenses increased because with strong new customer acquisition in FY 2024 and FY 2025, the proportion of newer customers who are more likely to default increased mainly in the Guarantee Business. Next, I will touch on a change in provision for loss on Guarantees. Provision for loss on Guarantees decreased by JPY 2.7 billion, half on half in the first half of last fiscal year, thanks mainly to a lower reserve ratio.
In contrast, provision for loss on Guarantees in the first half of this fiscal year increased by JPY 1.1 billion, half on half, due to growth of guaranteed receivables and the higher reserve ratios for some partner banks. As a result, a change in provision for loss on guarantees was an increase of JPY 1.4 billion. Lastly, I would like to touch on financial expenses. Please turn to page 33. Consolidated financial expenses shown on the left increased 46.8% year-on-year to JPY 4.9 billion, mainly because non-consolidated financial expenses at Acom, shown on the right, increased 73.5% to JPY 4.5 billion. Two factors are responsible for the increase in financial expenses of Acom. Please go to page 34. Firstly, as is shown on the left, with receivables growth, outstanding debt increased by JPY 69.2 billion to JPY 712.8 billion.
Secondly, with higher market rates, an average in borrowing costs went up by 48 basis points to 1.3%, as is illustrated by the solid line. The pie chart on the right shows funding sources and their proportions. The split between direct and indirect funding is 37% and 63%, with funding from MUFG Bank representing 28.9%. 70.1% of our total debt is at fixed rates, and 86.1% is long-term. While we will keep focusing on long-term debt at fixed rates in our future funding, we will try to strike an optimal balance between short and long-term debt and floating and fixed rates in our effort to control financial expenses. For your reference, page 36 and the following pages show the trend of the size of the Personal Card Loan Market and the Medium-term Management Plan. This will do for supplementary information on financial results for the first half.
I would like to conclude my presentation by asking for your continued support and guidance to our group. Thank you very much.