Bank loan delinquency rate falls in Nov.

SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Yonhap) -- The delinquency rate for South Korean bank loans
declined to an 11-month low in November as lenders disposed of more overdue
debts, the financial watchdog said Monday.

The overall delinquency rate of bank loans to companies and households came in at
1.1 percent as of the end of November, down 0.09 percentage point from a month
earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
Compared with the previous year, the rate fell 0.08 percentage point last month,
marking the first on-year decline since April 2008, the FSS added.
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.
The default rate of bank loans to smaller firms reached 1.72 percent as of the
end of last month, down 0.13 percentage point the previous month, the watchdog
said. The corresponding rate of home-backed lending came to 0.4 percent, down
from 0.44 percent a month earlier.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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