Bank loan defaults rebound in Oct.

SEOUL, Nov. 24 (Yonhap) -- The loan delinquency rate for South Korean banks
rebounded in October as lenders cleaned up less in overdue debts due to seasonal
reasons, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.
The overall delinquency rate of bank loans to companies and households came in at
1.19 percent as of the end of October, up 0.08 percentage point from a month
earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
"A rebound in the loan delinquency rate came in October because fresh overdue
debts rose, and banks handle them less after the end of each quarter," the
watchdog said in a statement.
The growth in the delinquency rate had slowed since March, snapping an upward
trend that began in September last year, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers
Holdings Inc. battered global financial markets. The rate shot up to 1.67 percent
at the end of February.
In September, the ratio reached a nine-month low of 1.11 percent as improving
corporate funding conditions helped reduce the amount of new overdue debts, it
added.
The default rate of bank loans to smaller firms reached 1.85 percent as of the
end of last month, up 0.13 percentage point the previous month, the FSS said. The
corresponding rate of home-backed lending came to 0.44 percent, up from 0.41
percent a month earlier.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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