Banks’ loan delinquency rate stays nearly flat in November

The delinquency rate on loans extended by South Korean banks remained nearly flat in November from the previous month, the financial watchdog said Thursday.

The average delinquency rate for bank loans stood at 0.89 percent at the end of November, down 0.01 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The amount of cleared bad debts, worth 1.6 trillion won ($1.47 billion), was balanced with the same quantity of fresh bad loans during November.

The overdue rate for corporate loans was also nearly unchanged at 1.1 percent over the cited period, while that of household loans fell 0.3 percentage point to 0.62 percent, the FSS said.

The outstanding amount of won-denominated loans stood at 1,252.1 trillion won as of end-November, up 9.7 trillion won, or 0.8 percent, from the previous month. (Yonhap)