Woori Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:WF) Q3 2022 Earnings Conference Call October 25, 2022 2:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Yi Jung Su - Head, Investor Relations

Son Tae-Seung - Chairman

Chun Sang-Wook - President

Jung Seok-Yong - Chief Revenue Officer

Park Jong-il - CSO and ESG Officer

Lee Sung-Wook - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Jeong Tae-joon - Yuanta Securities

Jung Jun-Sup - NH Securities

Park Hye-jin - Daishin Securities

Kim Do Ha - Hanwha Securities

Shim Jong-Min - CLSA

Yi Jung Su

Good afternoon. I am Yi Jung Su [ph], Head of IR at Woori Financial Group. Let me begin by first thanking everyone for taking time to participate in this earnings conference call for the Woori Financial Group. On today’s call, we have the Woori Financial Group Chairman, Son Tae-Seung; President, Chun Sang-Wook, responsible for the group IR; group CRO, Jung Seok-Yong; group CSO and ESG Officer, Park Jong-il; and group CFO, Lee Sung-Wook, on the call today.

For today’s call, group Chairman, Son Tae-Seung will deliver his remarks, after which, we will go into the presentation and then open the Q&A session. In addition, please note that for our overseas investors, we have simultaneous interpretation that is being provided.

Now, let me hand it over to the group Chairman, Son Tae-Seung for his remarks.

Son Tae-Seung

Good afternoon. This is Woori Financial Group Chairman, Son Tae-Seung. Let me first begin by extending my sincere gratitude to everyone who is on this call for the 2022 Q3 earnings conference call. Before going into the presentation and the Q&A, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly go over the third quarter highlights and also future business direction.

The group’s 2022 Q3 year-to-date net profit totaled KRW2,661.7 billion, which includes the third quarter net profit of KRW899.8 billion. This is a year-over-year increase of 21.1%. Moreover, we have already exceeded last year’s full year performance in only three quarters and the third quarter YTD performance is the strongest level in our history. This performance was driven by an increase in our non-bank revenue as our portfolio expanded and by stronger profit generation capabilities. In addition, in terms of third quarter asset quality, credit cost was 0.24% and the delinquency rate 0.22%, representing the strongest asset quality levels within the industry.

As inflation in Korea and abroad led to deeper concerns about consumer price increases, preemptive efforts to improve business efficiency at the group has enabled the group in the third quarter to post a cost/income ratio of 40.5%, an improvement of 4.7% year-over-year. We only have around 2 months left in 2022. We will continue our efforts to the end of this year to end our business successfully and prepare for 2023.