In December Last Year, Bank Loan Delinquency Rate at 0.36%... Down 0.12%p from Previous Month

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 18th that the delinquency rate on Korean won loans at domestic banks (based on principal and interest overdue by more than one month) fell by 0.12 percentage points to 0.36% at the end of December last year, compared to 0.48% at the end of the previous month.

Compared to the end of December 2018 (0.40%), it decreased by 0.04 percentage points.

In December last year, the amount of delinquent loans resolved (KRW 3.3 trillion) exceeded the amount of new delinquencies (KRW 1.2 trillion). As a result, the balance of delinquent loans (KRW 6.2 trillion) decreased by KRW 2 trillion, leading to a decline in the delinquency rate.

By borrower type, the delinquency rate on corporate loans (0.45%) fell by 0.17 percentage points compared to 0.63% at the end of the previous month.

The delinquency rate on large corporate loans (0.50%) decreased by 0.15 percentage points from 0.66% at the end of the previous month, and the delinquency rate on small and medium-sized enterprise loans (0.44%) dropped by 0.18 percentage points from 0.62% at the end of the previous month.

The delinquency rate on individual business owner loans, mostly self-employed loans, was 0.29%, down 0.09 percentage points compared to the end of the previous month.

The delinquency rate on household loans (0.26%) fell by 0.05 percentage points compared to 0.31% at the end of the previous month.

The delinquency rate on mortgage loans was 0.20%, down 0.02 percentage points from 0.22% at the end of the previous month.

The Financial Supervisory Service stated, "We will continue to monitor trends in new delinquencies and encourage strengthening loss absorption capacity by adequately provisioning loan loss reserves."