Seoul: Loans extended by insurance companies in South Korea fell for the second consecutive quarter in the second quarter of the year amid tightened lending rules, data showed Monday. Insurers' outstanding loans had reached 265.4 trillion won (US$191 billion) as of the end of June, down 2.4 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the on-quarter decrease was attributed to a decline in loans extended both to households and businesses. Household lending had stood at 134.4 trillion won as of end-June, down 0.5 trillion won from the previous quarter, and corporate lending shrank by 1.9 trillion won to 131 trillion won over the cited period.
The loan delinquency rate, which measures the proportion of loan principal or interest unpaid for at least a month, stood at 0.83 percent at end-June, up 0.17 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the financial watchdog. The rate of insurers' nonperforming loans came to 1 percent at the end of June, up 0.08 percentage point from three months earlier, the data showed.