The delinquency rate on corporate loans at Industrial Bank of Korea (024110) has climbed to 1.1%.
The bank's overall delinquency rate stood at 1.04% at the end of September, up 0.04 percentage point from a year earlier, according to third-quarter results disclosed on the 26th.
Late payments rose sharply among corporate borrowers. The household loan delinquency rate improved by 0.16 percentage point to 0.5% over the same period, while the corporate loan rate rose 0.07 percentage point to 1.10% — the highest since March 2009, when it reached 1.18%. By sector, the delinquency rate for real estate and leasing businesses rose to 1.99% from 1.16%, and the rate for construction climbed to 1.48% from 1.32%. The bank said it is setting aside additional loan-loss provisions in advance to reflect the impact of recent interest rate increases and to strengthen its capacity to absorb losses.
Third-quarter net profit on a consolidated basis was 771.2 billion won ($539 million), up 2.7% from a year earlier. Cumulative net profit for the year fell 2.0% to 2.2141 trillion won. The balance of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises rose 3.9% from the end of last year to 272 trillion won, giving the bank a 24.5% share of the small-business lending market.