[
THE INVESTOR] Saving banks in South Korea improved their financial soundness in the first nine months as their net profits increased by 71.8 percent on-year, according to official data on Nov. 22.
The aggregate net income of 79 savings banks here jumped to 764.5 billion won (US$644 million) during the January-September period, according to the Financial Supervisory Service. It added the figure is a provisional one.
Their total assets came to 49.9 trillion won as of Sept. 30, up 6 trillion won from the end of 2015.
The delinquency rate fell 2.3 percentage points to 6.9 percent over the nine months. The delinquency rate of loans to companies dropped 3.3 percentage points to 7.7 percent, while that to households declined 0.8 percentage point to 6 percent.
The ratio of loans classified as substandard or below stood at 7.8 percent, down 2.4 percentage points.
Their BIS capital ratio grew 0.56 percentage point to 14.7 percent.
(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)