Published : Jan. 30, 2017 - 14:44
The outstanding household loans extended by the country's top five commercial lenders topped the 500 trillion-won ($428 billion) mark last year, as more people took out loans to buy homes and finance their costs for education and other things, industry data showed Monday.
According to the data, the outstanding loans extended to households by the country's top five lenders -- Shinhan, Kookmin, Woori, Hana-KEB and Nonghyup -- reached a record high of 500.92 trillion won at the end of last year, up 42.2 trillion won, or 9.2 percent, from a year ago.
(Yonhap)
Kookmin Bank held outstanding household loans totaling 123.1 trillion won, followed by Woori Bank with 102.5 trillion won, KEB Hana with 95.07 trillion won, Shinhan with 93.63 trillion won and Nonghyup with 86.57 trillion won, the data showed.
In particular, Nonghyup logged the largest increase of 11.1 trillion won in household loans, or a 14.8 percent rise last year, the data showed.
Woori Bank increased its household loan extensions by 10.32 trillion won, or 11.7 percent, while Shinhan Bank posted the smallest increase of 5.55 trillion won in its household loans, they showed.
South Korea's financial authorities said earlier that they would make efforts to address the chronic household debt problem amid snowballing debt.
Household credit in the major Asian economy totaled 1,295.8 trillion won as of end-September last year, up 11.2 percent from a year earlier. The volume has apparently exceeded 1,300 trillion won, given the trend of monthly growth.
Concern has grown about a possible negative impact of US rate hikes and a slowdown in economic growth on massive household debt. (Yonhap)