Loans extended by savings banks jump in Q1

Low-credit borrowers sought more loans at savings banks in the first quarter, pushing up the number of lendees at the secondary banks to a four-year on-quarter high, a savings banks' association said Monday.

In the January-March period, the number of people who took loans from savings banks jumped 7.41 percent, or 112,886 borrowers, to 1.63 million from 1.52 million a quarter earlier, according to data from the Korea Federation of Savings Bank. 

It was the biggest on-quarter jump since the first quarter of 2012 when the borrowers climbed by 114,167 from a quarter earlier, showed the FSB data.

At the end of March, the total loans delivered by the country's savings banks stood at 37.664 trillion won, up 5.8 percent from the end of December, the data said.

Korea's household loans already exceeded 1,200 trillion won helped by lower rates and the government's stimulus packages designed to boost the real estate market.

But people with low credit scores have no other option but to seek high-rate loans at savings banks and microfinancing companies as they have had little access to loans offered by commercial banks.  (Yonhap)