Seoul: South Korean banks’ bad loans increased from three months earlier in the first quarter, data showed Friday. Loans classified as substandard or below (SBL) held by local banks came to 16.6 trillion won (US$12 billion) as of end-March, up 1.6 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

According to Yonhap News Agency, some 6 trillion won in loans were newly classified as soured in the first quarter, down from 6.1 trillion won the previous quarter. Local banks wrote off 4.4 trillion won worth of bad loans in the January-March period, smaller than 5.5 trillion won the previous quarter, according to the data.

The percentage of SBLs to the total outstanding loans came to 0.59 percent at the end of March, up from the 0.54 percent three months ago. The ratio of business loans classified as SBLs stood at 0.72 percent as of end-March, up from 0.66 percent three months earlier, while the ratio for household loans inched up 0.03 percentage point to 0.32 p
ercent, according to the financial regulator.