Commission income and asset sales boosted net profit for South Korean credit card companies in 2014, the financial watchdog said Thursday.

The combined net earnings of eight credit card firms stood at 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) last year, up 5 percent from the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The net increase comes to 2.2 trillion won, up 27.6 percent on-year, when including gains from asset sales.

Samsung Card Co., for instance, earned 488.5 billion won from sales of its stakes in Cheil Industries Inc. and Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Co.

The commission income contributed to the profit increase with a 4.7 percent on-year rise, or 840.1 billion won.

By firm, Shinhan Card Co. logged the largest annual profit at 676.3 billion won, down 3.2 percent from a year earlier.

KB Kookmin Card Co., came in second with a profit of 342.3 billion won, followed by Samsung Card Co. with 247.3 billion won and Hyundai Card Co. with 217.2 billion won.

Purchases made by credit and debit cards totaled 613.2 trillion won last year, up 5.4 percent, or 31.6 trillion won, from a year earlier, driven by a sharp rise in debit card use, the FSS said.

Debit card payments jumped 21.6 percent, or 20 trillion won, to 112.7 trillion won over the cited period, while credit card spending amounted to 500.5 trillion won, up 2.4 percent, or 11.6 trillion won, from a year earlier.

The delinquency ratio of card loans measured at 1.69 percent as of end-December, down 0.13 percentage point from a year ago, the FSS said. (Yonhap)