Seoul [South Korea], August 22: South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio fell in three months in June owing to higher bad loan settlements than new delinquent loans, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.
Bank loans overdue at least one month came in at 0.35 percent of the total at the end of June, down 0.05 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Banks settled 3.1 trillion won (2.3 billion U.S. dollars) worth of non-performing loans in the month, higher than new delinquent loans amounting to 2.0 trillion won (1.5 billion dollars).
The local banks increased bad loan settlements ahead of the end of the April-June quarter, but the delinquency ratio had been roughly on the rise after hitting bottom at 0.20 percent in June last year.
The central bank had left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.50 percent since January, after lifting it by 3.0 percentage points for the past one and a half years.
Excluding the settled bad loans, the delinquency ratio for fresh bank loans had gained from 0.08 percent in March to 0.10 percent in May before sliding to 0.09 percent in June.
The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loans slipped 0.06 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.37 percent at the end of June, while the ratio for household loans retreated 0.04 percentage points to 0.33 percent.
Source: Xinhua
