S.Korean insurers' mortgage loan to households falls for 3 quarters

Source: Xinhua | 2019-12-04

South Korean insurers' mortgage loan to households fell for three straight quarters through the third quarter on the government's measures to tighten loan regulations, financial watchdog data showed Tuesday.

Home-backed loans, extended by insurance companies, reached 44.2 trillion won (37.2 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of September, down 1 trillion won (842 million U.S. dollars) from three months earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The insurers' mortgage loan kept sliding for the third consecutive quarter. Compared with the end of last December, the insurers' home-backed loan declined 2 trillion won (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of September.

The government unveiled a set of measures to tighten loan standard in a bid to control speculative investment in the real estate market.

Meanwhile, insurers' loan to companies increased 2.6 trillion won (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) from three months earlier to 108.3 trillion won (91.2 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of September.