Banks' loan delinquency rate edges up in Jan.

SEOUL, Feb. 29 (Yonhap) -- The delinquency rate for loans extended by South Korean banks edged up in January from a month earlier due to a rise in soured loans taken out by large firms, the financial watchdog said Monday.

The average delinquency rate for bank loans stood at 0.76 percent at the end of last month, up 0.09 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

From a year earlier, however, the figure fell 0.04 percentage point, it noted.

Loans with both the principal and interest overdue by one month or more are considered delinquent.

The increase came as 1.8 trillion won (US$1.45 billion) worth of loans turned sour last month, while 600 billion won in debt was written off, according to the regulator.

The overall overdue rate for corporate loans gained 0.14 percentage point on-year to 0.92 percent in January, with the rate for big firms rising 0.22 percentage point to 1.14 percent and that for smaller firms edging up 0.12 percentage point to 0.85 percent, the data showed.

The delinquency rate for household loans stood at 0.36 percent, edging up 0.03 percentage point from the previous month.

The outstanding amount of won-denominated loans stood at 1,360.4 trillion won as of end-January, up 7.6 trillion won from the previous month, according to the FSS.

Those extended to households reached 640.7 trillion won, up 2.1 trillion won over the cited period, while corporate loans rose 0.92 percent to 763.1 trillion won, according to the watchdog.

graceoh@yna.co.kr
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