BNK Financial Group (138930.KS): 2Q26 Review: Falling short of expectations; Sell

Research evidence excerpt

BNK Financial Group (138930.KS): 2Q26 Review: Falling short of expectations; Sell

Equity Research

28 July 2026 | 11:54PM KST

BNK Financial Group (138930.KS): 2Q26 Review: Falling short of

expectations; Sell

Earnings miss due to weaker NIM, bigger provisions and special cost items Sinyoung Park

+82(2)3788-1778 |

BNK reported 2Q26 NP of W200bn, down 35% y-o-y and missing GSe/BBG sinyoung.park@gs.com

Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C., Seoul

consensus estimate by 13%/19%. Earnings miss was driven by weaker NIM resulting Branch

from front-loading loan growth, bigger provisions from corporate credit reviews and

special items (W44bn ad. for acquiring non-controlling interest of BNK FG Tower

Fund; higher education tax). Coupled with accelerated RWA growth (+1.6% q-o-q)

and increased shareholder return, its CET1 ratio declined 16bp q-o-q to 12.14%.

Prioritizing profitability over volume growth in 2H26E

Although regional banks typically exhibit higher sensitivity to rate hikes, Busan &

Kyongnam Bank saw NIM contraction in 2Q26 as both banks tried to front-load loan

growth targeting prime borrowers, which drove up funding costs while yielding lower

attached asset returns. That said, management plans to pivot toward prioritizing

profitability over volume growth in 2H26E, guiding that the benefits of rate hikes

should become more visible in the coming quarters.

Slower and softer profit recovery than guided

The 7.5% group ROE for the quarter is running below 2026E net profit guidance

(W900bn, implying 8.7% ROE) and remains far short of 10% mid-term ROE target

under its Value Up program. While BNK FG remains committed to its shareholder

return promises (50% TSR by 2027E), we believe the group lacks the capacity to