▲ Mortgage loan products
Overdue mortgage loans at domestic banks are piling up like a snowball.
What stands out is that the rate of increase in overdues is much faster than the growth of total mortgage loan balances.
Coupled with rising loan interest rates, default risks among borrowers who engaged in "young-geul" (a slang term meaning scraping together every last penny, including soul and body, to buy property) are rapidly expanding.
According to data submitted by the Financial Supervisory Service to Representative Park Sung-hoon of the People Power Party on the National Policy Committee, domestic banks' mortgage loan claims rose 21% from 644.3 trillion won at the end of 2022 to 779.2 trillion won at the end of June this year.
Over the same period, overdue loans with principal and interest overdue for one month or more surged 120% from 1 trillion won to 2.2 trillion won.
This growth rate is six times the increase rate of total loan balances.
Overdue claims have continued an uninterrupted upward trend, recording 1.6 trillion won at the end of 2023, 1.9 trillion won at the end of 2024, and 2.1 trillion won at the end of last year.
Long-term overdues also increased rapidly.
Loans overdue for three months or more rose from 500 billion won at the end of 2022 to 900 billion won at the end of 2023, 1.1 trillion won at the end of 2024, and 1.4 trillion won at the end of last year, while maintaining around 1.4 trillion won at the end of June this year.
Substandard-or-below loans, which combine substandard, doubtful, and estimated loss loans, also more than doubled from 800 billion won to 1.7 trillion won over the same period.
Loan-loss reserves set aside by banks likewise tripled from 300 billion won at the end of 2022 to 900 billion won at the end of June this year.
The loan-loss reserve ratio, calculated by dividing loan-loss reserves by substandard-or-below loans, rose from 44.5% to 51.1%.
By bank, NH Nonghyup Bank recorded the largest overdue mortgage balance at the end of June this year, reaching 511.73 billion won.
It was followed by KB Kookmin Bank (368.02 billion won), Woori Bank (341.96 billion won), Hana Bank (302.66 billion won), and Shinhan Bank (216.88 billion won).
Among them, Nonghyup Bank's overdue balance grew every year from 134.61 billion won at the end of 2022, 241.76 billion won at the end of 2023, and 382.22 billion won at the end of 2024 to 443.43 billion won at the end of last year, ultimately exceeding 500 billion won for the first time this year.
Some regional banks showed abnormal signs of a sharp surge in overdues over a short period.
Jeonbuk Bank's mortgage delinquency rate jumped fivefold in just six months, rising from 0.19% at the end of last year to 0.95% at the end of June this year.
This is the highest delinquency rate among the banking sector.
The overdue balance also surged from 5.26 billion won to 32.81 billion won over the same period.
In this regard, the Financial Supervisory Service explained that Jeonbuk Bank's overdue balance increased significantly due to massive overdues occurring in certain newly completed collective housing group loans this year.
Kyongnam Bank's delinquency rate also rose from 0.14% at the end of 2022 to 0.41% at the end of June this year, while Sh Suhyup Bank's rose from 0.17% to 0.45%.
In contrast, Shinhan Bank's mortgage delinquency rate edged up by just 0.08 percentage points from the end of 2022 to 0.19% at the end of June this year, whereas KakaoBank's rate fell from 0.38% to 0.16% over the same period.
Representative Park Sung-hoon urged, "Household debt repayment capacity is failing to keep pace with the speed of loan growth," adding, "Financial authorities must proactively inspect vulnerable borrowers and group loan default risks."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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