Loans extended by insurance companies in South Korea rose 7.8 percent on-year last year, led by increases in home-backed lending and corporate loans, the financial watchdog said Friday.

Insurers' outstanding loans totaled 253 trillion won ($224.4 billion) as of end-December, compared with 234.7 trillion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

Their loans to households rose 2 trillion won on-year to 123.1 trillion won last year as the extension of home-backed lending increased amid rising housing prices. Insurers' mortgage loans grew 3.2 trillion won to 47.2 trillion won.

Lending to companies amounted to 129.7 trillion won as of end-December, up 16.3 trillion won from a year earlier.

The loan delinquency rate, which measures the proportion of loan principal or unpaid interest for at least a month, came to 0.17 percent in 2020, down 0.09 percentage point from a year earlier.

The delinquency rate for household loans declined 0.2 percentage point to 0.38 percent, while that for corporate lending came to 0.08 percent, down 0.03 percentage point.

The ratio of nonperforming loans came to 0.15 percent, unchanged from three months earlier, the FSS said. (Yonhap)