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Banks' bad-loan ratio unchanged in Q4

Published: 25 Mar. 2026, 09:25

Bank ATMs in Seoul are pictured on March 8. [YONHAP]

Korean banks' bad-loan ratio remained unchanged during the fourth quarter of last year from three months earlier, data from the Financial Supervisory Service showed Wednesday.

Loans classified as substandard or below (SBL) held by local banks came to 16.6 trillion won ($11.1 billion) as of end-December, up 200 billion won from three months earlier, according to the data.

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 400 billion won from the previous quarter.

Local banks wrote off 5.7 trillion won worth of bad loans in the October-December period, also up 100 billion 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.

Yonhap