South Korean banks saw their combined net income shrink sharply from a year earlier in the first half, due largely to a drop in the profit of specialized banks, data showed Thursday.The combined net profit of domestic banks for the first six months of the year came to 12.6 trillion won (US$9.42 billion), down 1.5 trillion won or 11.0 percent from the same period last year, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.Commercial banks, including regional and internet-only banks, saw their combined net grow from 7.7 trillion won to 7.8 trillion won over the cited period, but that of specialized banks dipped to 4.8 trillion won from 6.4 trillion won.Specialized banks include state policy lenders, such as the Korea Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea.The domestic banks' interest income reached 29.8 trillion won in the January-June period, up from 29.4 trillion won a year earlier, according to the financial regulator, which attributed the on-year growth to a 4.1 percent ex pansion in the banks' interest-bearing assets.Their noninterest income, on the other hand, plunged 11.4 percent on-year to 3.4 trillion won.The banks' return-on-assets came in at 0.67 percent for the first half, down 0.12 percentage point from 0.79 percent a year earlier, while their return-on-equity dropped 1.82 percentage points to 9.03 percent over the same period.Source: Yonhap News Agency