Banks' bad loans fall 16 pct in 2019

SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- Nonperforming loans at South Korean banks fell 15.8 percent in 2019 from a year earlier due to a decline in overdue corporate loans, data showed Monday.

Bad loans held by local banks reached 15.3 trillion won (US$12.7 billion) at the end of December last year, compared with 18.2 trillion won during the same period of 2018, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The ratio of bad loans to total lending came to 0.77 percent, compared wit 0.97 percent during the same period of 2018.

Bad loans extended to businesses reached 13.2 trillion won at the end of December last year, down 3.1 trillion won from the same period of 2018, the data showed.

Overdue corporate loans accounted for 86.3 percent of total non-performing loans.

Nonperforming loans extended to households increased to 1.9 trillion won from 1.7 trillion won during the cited period, it showed.

The regulator said it will keep monitoring bad loans and encourage banks to set aside enough loan-loss provisions.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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