Banks’ bad loans rise for 6th consecutive quarter in Q1

South Korean banks' nonperforming loans continued to grow for a sixth consecutive quarter in the first quarter of the year from three months earlier, data showed Friday. Loans classified as substandard or below (SBL) held by local banks had come to 13.4 trillion won (US$9.74 billion) as of end-March, up 900 billion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The figure has been on the rise since the fourth quarter of 2022 amid high interest rates and slow economic recovery. The percentage of SBLs to the total outstanding loans came to 0.50 percent at the end of March, up 0.03 percentage point from three months earlier. Bad loans extended to firms stood at 10.7 trillion won, while those extended to households were tallied at 2.7 trillion won, according to the financial regulator. In the first three months of the year, some 4.5 trillion won of bad loans were newly added, while 3.5 trillion won worth of bad loans were written off, the agency said. As of end -March, the amount of bad loan reserves stood at 27.2 trillion won, up 500 billion won from three months ago, the data showed. Source: Yonhap News Agency