The delinquency rate for loans extended by South Korean banks edged up in October from a month earlier due to a rise in soured loans extended to small- and mid-sized enterprises, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.

The average delinquency rate for bank loans stood at 0.7 percent at the end of October, up 0.04 percentage point from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

From a year earlier, the figure dropped 0.2 percentage point, it added.

Loans with both the principal and interest overdue by one month or more are considered delinquent here.

Over the cited period, 1.6 trillion won ($1.38 billion) worth of loans turned sour, with 1 trillion won worth of debts written off, the FSS said.

The overdue rate of corporate debt gained 0.06 percentage point on-month to 0.92 percent in October, with that for loans extended to smaller firms rising 0.11 percentage point to 0.93 percent.

The delinquency rate for household loans stood at 0.4 percent in October, up 0.01 percentage point over the same period.

The outstanding amount of won-denominated loans stood at 1,340.6 trillion won as of end-October, up 19.2 trillion won, or 1.5 percent, from the previous month.

Those extended to households reached 549.2 trillion won, up 8.7 trillion won over the cited period, while corporate loans rose 10.7 trillion won to 761.6 trillion won. (Yonhap)