Good afternoon. This is Allen, CEO of Kakao Pay.

Thank you all for joining our Q2 2026 earnings conference call. I will begin with key metrics, including TPV, consolidated operating revenue and expense, P&L, followed by key business highlights for Q2 2026.

First, on key metrics for the quarter. Q2 '26 TPV was 54.2 trillion won, up 20% YoY, sustaining a solid top-line uptrend.

Revenue TPV was up 19% YoY to 15.7 trillion, sustaining profit-driven, qualitative growth. Q2 consolidated revenue was up 41% YoY to 335.1 billion won, underpinned by three consecutive quarters of double-digit growth YoY across the entire business lines, including payment, digital finance, and platform, further strengthening solid revenue expansion.

In particular, digital finance saw its revenue surge 75% YoY, accounting for 52% of the total revenue mix, firmly establishing a diversified business structure. Operating profit in Q2 was 58.6 billion, growing triple-digit YoY and 82% QoQ, yet again rewriting the quarterly record.

EBITDA reported 67.5 billion, and net profit was 49.6 billion won, which is a testament to the full-fledged earnings capacity. As such, OP margin came in at 17.5%, with net income margin at 14.8%.

On the back of last quarter's performance, we not only maintained steady double-digit trajectory for the two key profitable metrics, but also drove sizeable growth, notching our profitability to new heights. Next, on business performance metrics.

Kakao Pay's DAU count was up 9% YoY to 6.95 million users as it maintained the uptrend. MAU was also up 2.1 percentage point, reaching 29%.

That results are driven by higher activation across core services, including both online and offline payment, which demonstrate deep penetration of daily use cases. Average transactions per user in Q2 was 87, rising 26% YoY.

We saw stronger user engagement on the back of brokerage services, higher payment usage, and cross-service usage underpinned by stronger benefit offerings. Supported by evenly spread growth from all of the business segments, which drove higher contribution per user, Q2 ARPU recorded 13,979 won, up 39% YoY.

Next, CFO Aiden will brief you on Q2 TPV and financial performance.

Hi, this is Aiden. Q2 TPV increased 20% YoY, reporting 54.2 trillion won.

Revenue TPV was up 19% YoY to 15.7 trillion won, with its share against the total TPV maintained at 29%, which is a strong proof of both top-line and bottom-line growth. Payment and money transfer both showed double-digit growth, driving the overall TPV expansion.

Firstly, payment service grew 25% YoY, driven by growth seen across all subsegments. Online payment reported 16% YoY growth on non-captive TPV expansion following seasonal promotions for the family month and data-driven joint marketing with the merchants.

Offline payment was up 58% YoY on broader use of government-funded vouchers and strong marketing focusing on wide-ranging benefit programs such as Good Deal. Cross-border payments saw 21% YoY growth on higher demand from inbound foreign travelers and targeted promotions at key global merchants.

Amidst stringent government regulation on lending, loan TPV sustained three consecutive quarters of QoQ growth on expansion of policy-driven products and targeted marketing against high engagement user base. Stock trading volume surged six times YoY, reaching 140 trillion won.

This was due to significant rise in both domestic and overseas trading volume. Active trading continued to feed into growing the money transfer to my own account, thus driving money transfer TPV growth of 21%.

Kakao Pay Money balance, as of end of Q2, stand at 2 trillion 815.7 billion won. Next is operating revenue.

Q2 revenue grew 41% YoY to 335.1 billion won. All of the business domains, including payment, digital finance, and platform, continued steep double-digit growth, sustaining a very solid top-line expansion.

By segment, payment service saw well-balanced growth from online, offline, and cross-border, with revenue reporting 13% YoY growth, coming in at 141.4 billion won. Digital finance revenue saw steep growth from investment and insurance businesses, posting 75% YoY growth, reaching 175.2 billion won.

This is equivalent to 52% share against total revenue. In terms of the breakdown, securities investment was up 99% YoY, driving the overall digital finance earnings expansion on the back of sizeable growth in both domestic and overseas trading volume.

Insurance service was also up 86% YoY on the back of solid demand around core products, such as overseas travel and handset insurance, as well as pet insurance rolled out last quarter and DB sales expansion. Loan sustained three consecutive quarters of QoQ growth on higher credit loan sales, driven by targeted marketing enhancement and product diversification.

Platform service reported 44% YoY growth on rise in DA ads with New Order wins related to income tax filing and higher use of telecom plan comparison services. Moving on to operating expense.

Q2 total operating expense was 276.5 billion won, up 21% on year and 3% on quarter. Looking at the breakdown, marketing expense increased 33% due to stronger online and offline affinity marketing.

Nevertheless, spending was kept at around 8% of total revenue as we continue to maintain performance-based, efficient, best resource allocation. Labor cost was up 8% YoY due to investment into core talent made to secure growth engine for the future.

Thanks to efficient headcount management, it fell 3% QoQ. Commissions paid increased 18% YoY due to rise in infrastructure spend.

We, however, are gradually reducing its share against total revenue as we systematically solidify profitability-centric cost base. Other operating expense increased 50% YoY, but fell 7% QoQ following last quarter's base effect regarding financial subsidiaries' derivative and FX position.

Next, on consolidated P&L. Operating profit in Q2 was 58.6 billion won, reaching new historical high.

OP margin was 17.5%, significant QoQ increase of 6.8 percentage point, continuing the uptrend in quarterly profits. EBITDA reported 67.5 billion with margin at 20.1%, while net income posted 49.6 billion with net income margin of 14.8%.

This is a result of enhanced performance from the standalone entity and financial subsidiaries and synergies from operational efficiency gain, which drove steep growth in operating profit, EBITDA, net income, and other key metrics. Thus, margin was solid, reporting double-digit as we successfully built the basis for growth in terms of both volume and quality.

Now, briefly on standalone performance for the quarter. Separate basis revenue rose 18% YoY to 196.8 billion won.

Standalone operating profit was 26 billion, up 83% YoY, while OP margin recorded 13.2%, securing a stable double-digit profitability. Net income was 21.1 billion won, with net income margin coming in at 10.7%.

Next, Jason will run through key performance highlights for the quarter.

Hello, this is Jason, leader of the business division. Let me start with online payment performance.

We've seen qualitative TPV growth from the virtuous flow across on- and offline and cross-border payments. First, Q2 online payment revenue grew 11% YoY, with non-captive growing 22%, expanding its share to 65% of total online payment.

Based on Pay's data and MyData, we fortified data modeling capacity, based on which we were able to fine-tune tailored marketing to identify strategic domestic and global merchants and new customers. We are running wake-up engagement programs against dormant customers.

On top of this, we also run marketing that caters to the mess, driving integrated marketing collaboration. That data-driven approach supported growth of strategically important partners, leading to tangible results, and we plan to expand these efforts in the future.

We're also seeking volume growth by expanding cross-service usage in payment, concurrently as we build a virtuous ecosystem cycle. By activating cross-usage across online, offline, overseas inbound and outbound, we are solidifying the virtual cycle in the Pay ecosystem while driving both TPV and top-line growth.

We have fine-tuned offline targeting linked to online payment context, further advanced conversion prediction model, which boosted user retention. For example, for users who made bookings to use public transportation, we would give out coupons for shops and restaurants along their route, building on the payment connectivity.

Customers with experience of cross-usage spent 2.3 times versus others, reinforcing framework that is of higher quality. Moving further ahead, we are maximizing customer lock-ins by expanding user experience across the entire service suite of Kakao Pay.

By driving cross-usage across core services, including payment, asset, brokerage, benefits, and through ongoing cross-promotional programs, users on 5+ services a month saw a churn rate under 1% the following month. Payment amount per user was 7.1 times versus users who only use a single service, which is demonstrating a strong lock-in effect.

All in all, by maximizing cross-usage across payment and core services beyond simply growing the user base, we created a flywheel that drives TPV growth and user lock-in, securing an enhanced structure and fueling quality-driven growth. We believe these experiences, when repeated, will build top-of-mind awareness and grow loyal customers in payment services.

Next, Jeff, who heads our services division, will run through offline payment.

Hello, this is Jeff, head of services. Next is on offline payment.

We continue to expand offline user base through stronger service competitiveness and enhanced benefits. Firstly, improved convenience and experience have lifted payment frequency and retention, result of which Q2 offline monthly user count exceeded 6 million.

As we broadened payment touchpoint and maximized benefit offerings, we were able to further expand the user base. Underpinned by greater user inflow, monthly transaction also trended upward, with Q2 offline payment up 31% on year and 24% on quarter, reaching 150 million.

Main lever behind offline growth was expansive benefit offerings. We've continuously strengthened user experience by offering wide-ranging portfolio of benefits, which include Good Deal, ongoing benefits, brand promotions, et cetera.

Good Deal, in particular, has become a strong flagship program for offline payment with its high-impact offerings. Number of Good Deal monthly users has reached 400,000, with around 3 million who experienced offline benefit, making this program a main engine behind offline payment growth.

In Q2, we also added on Good Deal Teens, promotions specifically targeting teens and the 20s, and Time Attack, expanding partnership with everyday merchants, further accelerating acquisition of new target users. Next, Jason will talk about Kakao Pay Score used for the loan service business.

I will present on the expanded adoption and the result of enhancement of Kakao Pay Score. We built alternative scoring model called Kakao Pay Score using non-financial and social data and more than 22 million MyData subscriber information.

We are quickly expanding adoption based on its proven and superior performance. Since the release in Q3 '25, we executed agreement with 12 financial institutions as of Q2 end.

Our plan now is to increase this number to 20 by the end of the year. Currently, the model is widely used by major banks, card companies, and savings banks in underwriting loans, and also by Korea Housing Finance Corporation for underwriting guarantees, which is a testament to its effectiveness.

We're also maximizing synergies with the platform. Through continuous model enhancement and segmentation, we're developing new scoring criteria to meet the needs of institutions and improving access to tailored finance by further segmenting the model by target groups, such as small vendor, thin filers, and those with poor credit profiles.

As a result, Kakao Pay Score is becoming a solid foundation for user lock-in and synergies across internal services. Next, I will hand it over to Eddie to walk through Kakao Pay Securities and Insurance.

Hello, this is Eddie, in charge of overall operations. I'll begin with performance of Kakao Pay Securities.

On the back of strong domestic and overseas stock trading volume and strong customer engagement, Kakao Pay Securities has been accelerating profitable growth. As of Q2 end, AUM increased 279% YoY to 21 trillion won.

Supported by trends in the domestic and global stock markets and greater uptake in brokerage services, stock and pension asset grew 391% YoY. Strong equities market not only grew the asset base, but with inflow of customers' funds, the fundamentals have become robust.

Q2 net inflow was 4.8 trillion won, sustaining the uptrend for six consecutive quarters, while first half cumulative net inflow reported 8.5 trillion won. Such growth drove tangible earnings, with Q2 revenue at 121.9 billion won and operating profit reporting 39.6 billion won.

On expanded lineup of financial products and boost in trading, quarterly revenue was 121.9 billion, sustaining the growth trajectory. In conjunction with growth from domestic and overseas trading, we saw number of users grow, further solidifying the retail business.

Rise in revenue led to effects of operating leverage, which in turn increased the operating profit significantly, allowing us to outperform last year's per-annum results on first half cumulative basis. Next, we enhanced user acquisition funnel driven by capabilities around data internalization and development of proprietary feature.

As a result, new subscriber conversion to active user improved significantly, up more than 20 percentage point YoY as of June, exceeding 30%. By getting license for investment and trading, we secured basis toward a full-service securities firm.

In the short run, we plan to capture opportunities in investment banking, including IPO underwriting, underwriting syndicate participation, and corporate sales. In the mid to long term, by expanding into new business domains, we plan to strengthen synergies with the retail side.

Lastly, Kakao Pay Securities started its dedicated KakaoTalk channel, and the number of friends have now exceeded 1 million, the largest in the industry and 300,000 ahead of second place. As such, it has now become an always-on channel that delivers investment news and benefits directly to customers.

Next is on Kakao Pay Insurance. Kakao Pay Insurance continued its solid growth on strong channels and product competitiveness.

Revenue in Q2 was up 104% YoY and 6% QoQ to 25.6 billion won. Premium per policy increased with B2C product revisions and with B2B2C partnerships and product lineup expansion, significant contributions were made to the top-line growth.

The fundamentals have also strengthened on strong new product sales and higher premium. Pet insurance, our new product, offers industry-top coverage, with number of policies sold reaching 10,000 in just 4 months since the launch.

Handset insurance sales continues to be sold in step with new model launches. As a result, gross premium written increased 66% YoY to 25.9 billion won, with regular premium income reporting 7.5 billion, up 134% YoY.

Through portfolio diversification, on the back of growth in new business from regular premium product, we were able to mitigate seasonal variability and significantly improve earnings stability. Moving on to ESG and upcoming plans, I will invite back Allen for closing.

This is Allen again. Thanks to our efforts toward sustainable growth, there were several accomplishments.

First, we published 2025 ESG report. It reflects our AI-driven transformation efforts and the trend of AI-powered data collection used by global investors, and so we applied the dual-readable concept, designing data for both humans and AI.

Also, in recognition of our sustainability efforts, we were included in the FTSE Russell Index co-founded by UK's Financial Times and London Stock Exchange. Blind Spot Kakao Pay School senior class, which is part of our inclusive efforts, was awarded the commendation from Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT for closing the senior digital divide.

We also launched Blind Spot Supporters Program that supports training of young leaders in digital finance. Kakao Pay will redefine itself as a socially accountable company, creating social value for those who are sidelined in digital finance.

Far, we presented on the key highlights for Q2 '26. Second quarter was quite meaningful because following last quarter's robust trend, earnings outperformed our expectation across all businesses.

This is thanks to well-balanced growth across all business lines on a solid foundation of services and products, which demonstrated heightened fundamental capacity of the company. These results are not simply due to a one-time favorable market movement.

It's a testament to our continuous effort behind profit-driven capacity enhancement demonstrated through full-fledged operational efficiency gains, stronger user lock-in, and data-driven personalized service enhancements. Kakao Pay has now entered a trajectory towards qualitative growth, enabling both bottom-line and top-line growth, moving beyond a simple volume expansion.

Anchoring on proprietary data and platform capabilities, we will enhance service volume and maximize synergies with financial subsidiaries to nimbly respond to market changes. Through such efforts, we will solidify our position as the next-generation financial platform and build toward sustainable growth.

Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star 1, that is star and 1, if you have any questions.

Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star 1. For cancellation, please press star 2, that is star and 2 on your phone.

The first question will be provided by Shinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. I am Shinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs.

Thank you for taking my question. Would like to ask two questions.

The first has to do with the payment business. Recently, Coupang has announced that it will enter the payment market with Rocket Pay.

Considering the fact that Coupang is a e-commerce player that has a significant experience in payment transactions that amount about 10 trillion, would like to understand as to what your take is in regards to the potential impact that this entry might have. Second question have to do with Kakao Pay Insurance business.

It is correct that the earnings from Kakao Pay Insurance is uptrending, but in terms of profitability and bottom line, I believe that there needs to be further improvement that is expected or that is required. On top of the top-line revenue growth, would like to understand what your understanding is with regards to the loss ratio management as well as managing for profitability.

Basically would like to know as to when the timing is for attaining the breakeven point or when do you foresee you would be able to turn around and start recording profit? Hello, this is Jason, responding to your question on the entrance by Coupang with its Rocket Pay services.

Now, we are also closely following the news about Coupang entering into the off-platform payment business. However, we don't see this as a threat, but as an opportunity to grow the easy and simple payment, the whole of the payment market.

I believe the entry of large e-commerce player into the payment market will further enhance public awareness of simple payment services. As user groups that previously had limited experience with simple payment services become more familiar with them and gain hands-on experience and recognize the convenience that it offers, the overall market, we expect, will expand.

This would also accelerate the adoption of simple payment method by offline merchants and businesses, including the small vendors, much like that of the credit card. In other words, we believe this development will create a virtual cycle by broadening the overall market base rather than simply intensifying competition amongst existing players.

I do not believe Coupang's entry translates into big crisis for Kakao Pay because commerce and payment are fundamentally different. Payment success is not simply determined by traffic volume or amount of capital.

You need risk management, settlement infrastructure, merchant screening, and management know-how, and regulatory response capabilities. It takes significant time and trial and an error in building such foundation.

Also, other competing commerce platforms would need to make strategic judgment and be internally persuaded to open up their payment to a giant competitor, which won't be easy. Therefore, I think it's more important to see Kakao Pay's competitive moat.

We are based on open infrastructure, supporting hundreds of thousands of smaller merchants and up to large platforms. We're continuously expanding the choice of payment method, supporting QR code, Samsung Pay, and Zero Pay.

We've so far focused on user convenience, and now the pivot has expanded to benefits like Good Deal, which people can enjoy at every point of transaction. We're also broadening the scope of our product offerings in order to strengthen customers' awareness.

We're focusing on connecting merchants with users using data and creating a mutually beneficial flywheel. Kakao Pay is uniquely positioned with its hyperconnected payment ecosystem anchoring on KakaoTalk, the messenger of the people, connecting everyday needs from money transfer, billing, mobility, and small-ticket purchases.

When we bring tailored financial services underpinned by both data and personalization and synergies between securities and insurance and opportunities in innovations in digital finance, you will see that our model is fundamentally different to that of Coupang, and I'm confident that this is structural difference that cannot be mimicked in the short run. Based upon such differentiated competitive edge, we will continue to contribute to broadening the market.

This is Eddie, and I will take your question about Kakao Pay Insurance. Now, for Pay Insurance, we are seeing revenue growth and loss ratio improving at the same time, and second quarter results also signaled that if current trend continues, we may be able to accelerate the BEP timing.

Pay Insurance's revenue in the second quarter actually went up by 104% year-over-year, sustaining a steep uptrend, considering the conservative nature of the insurance industry. Underpinned by a portfolio diversification and steady base of subscribers, growth in scale actually leads to stable loss ratio and spread of the fixed cost.

We see top-line growth as a leading indicator of profit. Loss ratio is one of key factors that actually determine the breakeven point timing, and it has improved on both Q-over-Q basis and versus the second quarter of last year.

There were three levers behind this, the first being the change in the product mix on higher revenue share from B2C handset insurance, which has better loss ratio profiles. Second, we've seen also the traveler's insurance keep its loss ratio quite stable.

Thirdly, we made product revisions, fine-tuned underwriting standards, and strengthened claims review, which helped control loss ratio while delivering new coverage that customers need and want. Also by automating claims review, we're gaining efficiencies in claims adjustment and fixed cost, driving improvement in both loss ratio and the expense ratio.

Kakao Pay Insurance's cost base also works favorably for achieving breakeven point early on because it's a structure whereas revenue grows, there is added benefit on the cost side because there's no distribution expense that's paid out to agents as commissions for new business acquisition as we are a digital insurance company. That's why speed of revenue growth turning to profit enhancement can be faster than conventional insurance riders.

Now, I won't be able to specify the timing right now, but with the loss ratio trend and unique cost structure as a digital insurer, and as depreciation and initial investment is soon to end, and on tight expense ratio controls, we will see greater visibility on the timing as we move forward. Next question, please.

The following question will be presented by Jingu Kim from Kiwoom Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Hello. Thank you for taking my question.

I am Jingu Kim from Kiwoom Securities. My question relates to your AI-related initiative.

Would like to understand as to what you are currently envisioning in building your asset management business, bringing together the frontier backbones of Anthropic and OpenAI models and the use of the user data that Kakao Pay generates. Would like to also gain some color as to the timeline of the preparation and when that product or service could potentially be launched.

Also would also appreciate your explanation on how you're going to, from Kakao Pay Securities perspective, actually planning on building the AI-driven service layer on the platform. Hi, this is Jeff, responding to your question.

First, Kakao Pay's asset management agent seeks to achieve performance on par with the frontier models by scaling up open-weight model rather than depending on external frontier model. Now, there are two reasons for this approach.

Our financial agent seeks to have an architecture different from that of a general artificial intelligence, the AGI. It is not one single large model that does everything.

Our architecture is based upon master agent calling on domain-specialized agents, such as asset management and for expenditure management. Each agent under this architecture is required to be precise in its own domain, the model requirements are not as heavy, but domain accuracy increases.

We are not vying for general-purpose intelligence, but competing to create an R&R that works precisely for the financial domain. Financial agent also must solve the compliance issue.

Due to network separation and regulation on purpose limitation under the Credit Information Act, it's fundamentally impossible to feed users' financial data into a third-party model, which means even if we partner up with a frontier model provider, we cannot integrate user data. Then the only solution is to have a structure of financial AI service using massive user data of Kakao Pay on top of our own GPU infrastructure and open-weight model.

As of today, that is August the 4th, we unveiled AI Coach product in open beta version. It's an expense management agent, and based on users' spending patterns, the agent provides coaching on the adequate amount of spending for the month, helping the user to achieve his or her goal by proposing certain missions.

In compared to past AI services, interaction based on natural language processing has become stronger, with strong coupling with asset management services and data. After the rollout, we will validate quality and stability using real usage data and gradually expand into other asset management domain.

For Kakao Pay Securities, we're also developing AI-based content development and user services. What's important is that everything is connected on top of the Pay platform.

AI Coach helps users to manage spending, the user now has some surplus, and using AI and content, Kakao Pay Securities will connect the flow by offering useful information. The picture we have in mind is to create one seamless experience from expense management to asset building.

Due to investment recommendation and suitability related regulations, initial scope will be limited to information delivery, and the implementation will follow once we ensure regulatory compliance. Next question, please.

The following question will be presented by Yujin Sun from LS Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. I am Yujin Sun from LS Securities.

First, congratulations on good earnings this quarter. I have one question relating to your brokerage business.

As you've mentioned in the opening presentation, Kakao Pay Securities recently obtained a license for trading and investment. I would like to understand as to potential synergies that it could create on expanding your asset management business, for instance, in the investment banking business, as well as IPO-related initiatives, leveraging the retail touchpoint that you have.

Would like to gain more color on what your specific strategy is in this business. This is Eddie, responding to your question about our business and the investment.

Now, in terms of longer-term planning, with the license that the Pay Securities have obtained, we will be expanding into investment banking, including IPO-related services, and we will take that in stages. Phase one is to participate in underwriting syndication to gain experience and build our track record, based on which we will attract talent and internal capacity so that we can eventually become a lead arranger for startups and tech companies' IPOs, leveraging our expertise as a tech-centered brokerage firm.

We will also tap into various corporate financing opportunities, including firm commitment underwriting and SPAC listing. Because talent acquisition and track record building has to be in place for IPO and investment banking business, it would be difficult to provide concrete timeline or the size of the business at this very moment.

Now, coming back to your question, we look at IPO service as a gateway for new investors rather than simply a new business segment. We want to allow customers to subscribe to IPO offerings without experiencing a high entry barrier or friction, based on the platform connectivity that we offer.

Our initial goal is to tap into the user group who have yet to use security services out of the 40 million user base that we have. We expect, over the medium to longer term, to create a virtual cycle in which customers acquired through IPO subscription start engaging with stock investing, wealth management, payment, and platform services, such as card and telecom brokerage services.

This is possible because Kakao Pay is not simply a standalone securities business. It has an integrated ecosystem where payments, financial service, and platform services are seamlessly connected, meaning the preferences and trading data of customers acquired through IPO subscription can naturally feed into delivering personalized financial service powered by MyData as well as recommendations received through advertising, credit card, and telecom brokerage.

Accordingly, we view IPO subscription as more than just a growth lever. It can also be an acquisition channel that brings new users into Kakao Pay's broader ecosystem.

Now, for the time being, however, we will focus our priorities on improving customers' experience and successfully onboarding the IPO business rather than focusing on longer-term synergies. Once the IB business builds its track record and once the service stabilizes, we will start to see such tangible synergies.

Next question, please. The following question will be presented by Dong Kim from Kyobo Securities.

Please go ahead with your question. Thank you for taking my question.

I have two questions relating to your securities business. With a heightened level of stock market volatility, I would presume that this would have impacted your retail business.

Would like to gain an update as to how the things are going in terms of preparing for the ISAs, pension, and other passive products as well as ETF products. If you could share an update, that would be helpful.

Also, regardless of these external factors, I would presume that the Pay Securities now is equipped with a stronger fundamentals. Would like to gain your assessment of where you stand at this point.

This is Eddie again, responding to your question. Regardless of volatilities of the market, our customer base and product usage patterns are continuously expanding, and we believe that's what's driving stronger fundamentals of Pay Securities.

On the passive investment side, pension products have exceeded 560,000 customers as of end of June, ranking top three in the industry based on net addition metrics. AUM is also above 900 billion won, a growth that is not one-off, but based on substantive usage, because the share of customers making a direct deposit is much bigger.

For ISA accounts, we have 890 billion in AUM with 400,000 subscribers as of June end, growing faster than the market in terms of number of subscribers. ETF demand continues to trend up as well, and we are expanding the product lineup in step with the trend.

These figures are meaningful because it has direct relevance to the fundamental resilience of the company and is more than just a influx of new users. Strength of Kakao Pay Securities is dictated by the depth and breadth of its customer base.

Number of monthly active trading customer increased to 1.61 million end of June, and we are seeing meaningful growth in number of customers who invest in other products other than stocks, which means rather than consuming one single product, cross-service usage pattern is spreading inside and on top of the Kakao Pay platform. Having stronger fundamentals mean we can limit the impact from outside risk arising from external volatilities.

Macro factors may lead to fluctuation in the short-term trading volume, but this is simply due to the difference in usage patterns between active versus passive investment. Regardless, number of trading customers continue to grow, and customers with high retention profiles will work as an impetus for steeper growth trajectory once the market is reactivated.

We see this as a structural competitiveness that can withstand short-term movements.

Thank you. My question relates to stablecoin business.

Within Kakao, I would like to understand as to the business structure that the Kakao group of companies is envisioning for the stablecoin business in terms of issuance as well as different business strategies. To what extent do you believe there would be business-related opportunities that you can look forward to?

Once the regulatory environment is determined, which segment would you be planning to enter into, in terms of the order? Which is the segment that you will enter into?

Hello, this is CEO Allen. We've mentioned this in the previous and last quarter's earnings call as well, but we're currently designing and validating two distinct opportunities, which include building the issuance infrastructure and making preparations for the distribution business.

First, on the issuance side, we are conducting strategic and technical validation to deliver Korean won-based stablecoin infrastructure on issuance and circulation or distribution together with Kakao affiliates and our key partners. At this point, Kakao Pay is designing the technical foundation in order to support wide-ranging use cases required by partners from various domains and is currently running proof of concept stage.

By setting up infrastructure that can run wide-ranging use cases, we are seeking to obtain relevant licenses and grow the prospective scale of circulation. On the distribution side, we are working to have 40 million Kakao Pay users store stablecoin in their respective wallets and use it for money transfer, payment, and investment as they go about their daily lives.

Our plan is to enhance user acceptance and lower cost of operations and explore new business opportunities. We are also working on addressing the agentic payment market, where payment is executed by the agent on behalf of the humans, and designing an experience to onboard users in easy and secure manner.

We have also been recently working on the so-called enterprise wallet in order to drive efficiency gains in the settlement process involving merchants, VAN, and payment gateways, and to expand into cross-border settlement for companies. This is a dual distribution strategy of expanding into B2B settlement infrastructure on top of onboarding based on B2C traffic.

We are also collaborating with others in order to bring success to such plans. Following the announcement to participate in the X402 Foundation, we recently also executed an MOU with Circle.

It is part of the effort to establish Korean won-based stablecoin ecosystem, discussion which has been ongoing for the past year, and to broaden the use cases. We will soon come back with more official announcements this quarter on partner collaborations, stay tuned.

Through such methodical approach, we will work towards consortium-level success and also develop stablecoin as the company's new growth engine. Due to the time constraint, this will be the last question that we take.

Thank you for taking my question. Recently, we've seen quite strong earnings performance across all your businesses, including brokerage, insurance, and payment.

From the management's perspective, what do you consider as a business domain that you find the biggest potential? Also would like to gain some understanding of what your views are in terms of the top-line growth as well as the bottom-line momentum.

If you could also share with us what your capital or investment priorities are, that will also be appreciated. Thank you for your very good question.

This is Aiden, the CFO. Now, the way to describe Kakao Pay's business structure is that based on payment as the core business, we have two engines for growth, which are namely securities and insurance business, upon which there is also the value-added new growth driver, which is the platform business.

All of the businesses contribute to growth across the company, each playing their own distinctive role under a distinctive time horizon. Payment is underpinned by strong money-based ecosystem with TPV and revenue uptrending, supported by strong coupling with strategic merchants and efficient data-driven marketing.

Especially the non-captive segment, despite the market being a mature market, is actually driving the top-line growth. Payment also is an ultra-touchpoint for everyday usage, and it generates value for smaller merchants, it is more than just a revenue source, it actually forms the structure of the business as a backbone.

Upon this solid basis, brokerage and insurance, which are our digital finance businesses, are serving as engine for growth, with overwhelming rate of growth. It is a pillar that supports the top-line growth, and Pay Securities is expanding the penetration, leveraging its moat as platform-based securities firm.

We were able to also notch up our capacity, driven by last year's overseas trading volume growth and the first 6-month surge in domestic trading volume this year. The macro changes may lead to top-line fluctuation, but as our active user base continues to grow, I believe better margin from brokerage business will be the key contributor to our bottom line.

In insurance, we've secured our market positioning via the short-term small-ticket insurances like the traveler's insurance, and as we make strategic enhancements to the product portfolio, we will see gradual improvement in profitability. In a nutshell, digital finance is an engine for growth with dual time horizon in terms of profit contribution.

Brokerage is serving the short term, while insurance, the longer-term horizon. Platform business is a value-add business inclusive of new business domains such as advertising, card, and telecom service brokerage, underpinned by MyData and Pay data.

From user's point of view, it's where they discover new benefits, and for the company, it is a lever that's becoming more important in creating corporate-wide earnings momentum. We expect profit contribution and revenue mix will gradually increase, making platform business more prominent than it is now.

You also asked about our priority in making decisions on capital and investment, in terms of prioritizing our CapEx, our plan is to invest for the next leap, investing into data-powered business, AI-driven service enhancements, and adoption of general payment gateways, and stablecoin business. However, the basic premise is that we would prioritize allocation to areas where market opportunities are amplified and where Pay's moat can drive tangible outcomes.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of Kakao Pay's second quarter 2026 earnings presentation.

Thank you all for joining us today. If you have any unanswered questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at the IR team of Kakao Pay.

Thank you.