Credit unions' 2020 net up due to brisk non-banking biz

South Korea's credit unions, or member-owned financial cooperatives, saw their combined net profit edge up 0.2 percent in 2020 from a year earlier due to higher sales of non-banking businesses, data showed Wednesday.

The combined net profit of 2,225 credit unions, including the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation known as Nonghyup, stood at 2.2 trillion won ($1.95 billion) in 2020, up 4.5 billion won from 2019, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Nonghyup's business portfolio ranges from hypermarts and home shopping to banks and brokerages.

As of the end of last year, the average delinquency rate of loans extended by the credit unions came to 1.54 percent, up 0.17 percentage point from a year earlier.

The total assets of the credit unions rose 7 percent on-year to 584.1 trillion won in 2020. (Yonhap)