South Korean banks saw their combined net profit from overseas operations inched up 1.1 percent in the first six months of the year from a year earlier, the financial watchdog said Sunday.

Earnings by 163 overseas units and branches of South Korean lenders totaled $377.6 million in the January-June, compared to $373.4 million the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The overseas income accounted for 10.6 percent of the banks' total profit over the cited period, it added.

Earnings from Vietnam more than doubled to $45.6 million and those from Japan tripled to $32.4 million over the cited period.

However, banks posted a 42.4 percent and 47.4 percent on-year drop in China and Singapore, respectively, to offset the increases in Vietnam and Japan.

The banks' total overseas assets amounted to $89.41 billion, up 3 percent from $86.84 billion tallied in the end of 2014. Overseas assets accounted for 4.8 percent of the total assets as of end-June. (Yonhap)