Online bank IYBank Co. said Friday it more than doubled its unconsolidated net profit to 10.84 billion yen in the year to March 31 due partly to the surge in the number of affiliated banks and consumer loan firms.
IYBank said its pretax profit for the 2004 business year more than tripled to 10.08 billion yen on a 64.7 percent jump in operating revenue to 47.97 billion yen.
IYBank, which started banking operations in May 2001, booked a profit for the first time ever in the preceding business year to March 2004. Its two major investors -- Ito-Yokado Co. and Seven-Eleven Japan Co. -- hold a total stake of 54.8 percent in the bank.
The bank, which has expanded the number of automated teller machines in operation nationwide to 9,981 as of March 31 from 7,804 in 2004, said the combined number of ATM network-based transactions during the 2004 business year surged to 257 million, or 77 deals per ATM each day.
In the previous business year, there were 158 million transactions, averaging 68 deals per ATM a day, the bank said.
IYBank also traced the jump in profitability to the impact of an advertisement campaign it conducted through newspapers and TV commercials.
IYBank's business involves charging affiliated financial institutions for each transaction the depositors and borrowers of those institutions conduct using the online bank's ATM network.
The bank, however, said it will not pay a dividend for fiscal 2004 as it has remained unable to wipe out the cumulative losses it has booked since its 2001 founding.
Loan services eyed
The Ito-Yokado Co. group bank plans to provide loans of up to several hundred thousand yen per borrower via automated teller machines.