Hecto Financial posted record first-half sales and operating profit as growth in its payment services and cross-border settlement business helped lift results.

Hecto Financial said on Wednesday preliminary consolidated revenue for the first half of 2026 totalled 107.6 billion won and operating profit came to 13.7 billion won. That was up 18.9 percent and 83.5 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Second-quarter revenue was 50.1 billion won, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier, and operating profit rose 20.2 percent to 4.6 billion won. From the previous quarter, revenue and operating profit fell 12.8 percent and 49.6 percent, respectively. The company said the decline reflected the impact of temporarily adjusting service operations for some merchants while it supplemented transaction structures for new services.

First-half results were influenced by expanded cross-border settlement revenue as existing payment services and transaction volumes from global merchants increased. Hecto Financial is seeking to improve profitability by increasing the share of its own member-based simple cash payment services such as "My Account Payment."

As new businesses, it is expanding stablecoin and artificial intelligence payment infrastructure. Hecto Financial has secured Circle's global stablecoin payment network, CPN, and is participating in the x402 Foundation, which develops AI payment standards, while carrying out a proof of concept for AI agent payments.

Hecto Financial granted restricted stock units (RSUs) to key executives and employees with a condition of achieving a market capitalisation of 1.5 trillion won. The aim is to align the interests of shareholders and employees by linking corporate value targets to employee compensation.

Chief Executive Choi Jong-won (최종원) said, "Based on stable growth in our existing payment business and expansion of the cross-border settlement business, we are strengthening profitability and growth at the same time." He added, "We will foster stablecoins and AI agent payment infrastructure as new growth engines."