Insurance firms' lending up in Q4: data

insurance firms-Q4 lending

Insurance firms' lending up in Q4: data

SEOUL, March 27 (Yonhap) -- Loans extended by insurance companies here rose in the fourth quarter of last year from three months earlier, data showed Friday.

Insurers' outstanding loans reached 265.2 trillion won (US$176 billion) as of end-December, up 3.8 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The on-quarter increase was attributed to a rise in loans extended both to households and businesses.

Their household lending stood at 134 trillion won as of end-December, up 700 billion won from the previous quarter, and corporate lending rose by 3.2 trillion won to 131.2 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 0.84 percent at end-December, up 0.03 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the financial watchdog.

The rate of insurers' nonperforming loans came to 1.03 percent at the end of December, up 0.05 percentage point from three months earlier, the data showed.

(END)

(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved