Banks' bad-loan ratio unchanged in Q4

▲ A passerby walks past a poster promoting house mortgage loans put up at a bank in central Seoul, in this June 15, 2025, file photo. (Yonhap)

bad loans-Q4 tally

Banks' bad-loan ratio unchanged in Q4

SEOUL, March 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korean banks' bad-loan ratio remained unchanged during the fourth quarter of last year from three months earlier, data showed Wednesday.

Loans classified as substandard or below (SBL) held by local banks came to 16.6 trillion won (US$11.1 billion) as of end-December, up 0.2 trillion won from three months earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service.

The proportion of SBLs to the total outstanding loans came to 0.57 percent at the end of December, unchanged from three months ago.

Some 5.9 trillion won in loans were newly classified as soured in the fourth quarter, up 0.4 trillion won from the previous quarter.

Local banks wrote off 5.7 trillion won worth of bad loans in the October-December period, also up 0.1 trillion won from the previous quarter, according to the data.

The ratio of business loans classified as SBLs stood at 0.70 percent as of end-December, down 0.01 percentage point from three months earlier.

The ratio for household loans came in at 0.31 percent as of end-December, also up 0.01 percentage point from three months earlier, according to the financial watchdog.

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