SEOUL, South Korea's 10 financial holding firms saw their combined net profit jump 50.3 percent in the first half due mainly to higher interest income, data showed Tuesday.

The combined net profit of KB Financial, Shinhan Financial and eight other financial holding firms stood at 11.47 trillion won (US$9.9 billion) in the January-June period, compared with a profit of 7.63 trillion won for the same period last year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The FSS attributed the hike to a modest rise in interest income and a decline in loan-loss provisions,

The average capital adequacy ratio of the financial holding firms stood at 15.55 percent at the end of June, up 0.92 percentage point from the end of last year, the FSS said.

Their total assets stood at 3,087 trillion won for the first half, up 4.8 percent from six months earlier, according to the data.

Source: Yonhap News Agency