S.Korean banks' bad debt ratio stays below 1 pct for 5 quarters

Source: Xinhua | 2019-12-12

South Korean banks' bad debt ratio stayed below 1 percent for the fifth straight quarter, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.

The ratio of bank loans, overdue at least three months, stood at 0.86 percent of the total as of the end of the July-September quarter, down 0.10 percentage point from a year earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

It hovered below 1 percent since the third quarter of last year. From three months ago, the third-quarter ratio fell 0.05 percentage points.

The delinquency ratio for banks' corporate loan declined 0.09 percentage points from three months earlier to 1.23 percent as of end-September.

The ratio for banks' household loan added 0.01 percentage point to 0.26 percent in the same period.

As of the end of September, delinquent bank loan amounted to 16.8 trillion won (14.1 billion U.S. dollars), down 4 percent from three months earlier.