April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Non-bank financial institutions’ corporate loans rose at a fast pace in the first half of the year as they pushed to lend more to one-man operations amid regulatory control on household lending, central bank data showed on Sept. 3.

Such loans by non-bank depository institutions came to 147.73 trillion won (US$132 billion) as of the end of June, up 16.32 trillion won from the end of last year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

The first-half increase came close to the all-time record of 16.39 trillion won recorded in the first six months of last year.

The data showed their lending to companies expanded at a much faster click in the January-June period than their loans to households.

Non-bank FI’s household lending totaled 317.19 trillion won as of end-June, up 3.29 trillion won from six months earlier.

The jump in their corporate loans was attributed mainly to their drive to lend more to sole proprietorships due to the financial watchdog’s efforts to curb lending to households.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)