KEB Hana Bank's head office in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
South Korean banks' household loans swung to an upturn in June following the previous month's one-off decline, central bank data showed Thursday.
Outstanding bank loans to local households came to 1,030.4 trillion won ($896 billion) as of end-June, up 6.3 trillion won from a month earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).
It marks a turnaround from the 1.6 trillion-won on-month decline in May, which was attributed to repayments of loans by customers after the initial public offering of battery maker SK IE Technology Co.
A large number of bank customers took out loans from local banks to apply for SK IE Technology's IPO subscription.
The central bank said June's sold growth resulted mainly from a surge in mortgage loans.
Banks' mortgage loans expanded by 5 trillion won on-month to 752.2 trillion won in June, compared with a 4 trillion-won increase the previous month.
Unsecured and other non-mortgage loans grew by 1.3 trillion won, a turnaround from a 5.5 trillion-won tumble.
In the January-June period, local banks' household loans soared by 41.6 trillion won, the largest first-half increase since data tracking began in 2004, according to the BOK. (Yonhap)