South Korea's credit finance firms saw their net profits jump 37.6 percent last year from a year earlier thanks to a drop in loan loss reserves and lower loan interest rates, the financial regulator said Wednesday. The combined net income of 60 credit finance companies reached 1.08 trillion won (US$1.01 billion) in the January-December period, up 37.6 percent from 790.7 billion won tallied in the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).