South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio falls in September

Seoul, Nov 15 (IANS) South Korean banks' loan delinquency ratio fell in three months due to more bad loan settlements than new delinquent loans, financial watchdog data showed on Friday.

Bank loans, overdue at least one month, accounted for 0.45 per cent of the total at the end of September, down 0.08 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), Xinhua news agency reported.

The bad loan ratio shifted downward after advancing 0.05 percentage points in July and 0.06 percentage points in August.

New delinquent loans came to 2.5 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in the cited month, lower than the settlement of non-performing loans worth 4.3 trillion won ($3.1 billion).

The delinquency ratio has roughly been on the rise after hitting bottom at 0.20 per cent in June 2022 amid rising uncertainty over the Asian economy.

The central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent in October, after freezing it for the past 21 months.

Excluding the settled bad loan, the delinquency ratio for fresh bank loans stood at 0.10 per cent in September, down 0.03 percentage points compared to the previous month.

The delinquency ratio for bank corporate loans declined 0.10 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.52 per cent at the end of September, while the ratio for household loans shed 0.04 percentage points to 0.36 per cent.

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