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(Seoul=Yonhap Infomax) Dong Kyu Heo = The outstanding balance of card loans at South Korea’s major credit card companies increased in October for the first time in five months, returning to the 42 trillion won ($31.7 billion) range.
According to the Credit Finance Association on the 20th, the combined card loan balance at nine major credit card issuers—Samsung Card, Shinhan Card, KB Kookmin Card, Hyundai Card, Lotte Card, Hana Card, Woori Card, BC Card, and NH Nonghyup Card—stood at 42.0751 trillion won ($31.8 billion) as of end-October, up by approximately 237.6 billion won ($179.7 million) from 41.8375 trillion won ($31.6 billion) at the end of September.
NH Nonghyup Card posted the largest increase, with its card loan balance rising by 58 billion won ($43.9 million). Samsung Card and Woori Card followed, with increases of 53.2 billion won ($40.1 million) and 48.9 billion won ($37.0 million), respectively.
In contrast, Shinhan Card, which holds the largest card loan balance among the issuers, saw its outstanding amount decline by 12.3 billion won ($9.3 million) in October, continuing a downward trend from September.
Card loan balances had been on a four-month consecutive decline from June to September, following the government’s June 27 measures and the implementation of the third phase of the Debt Service Ratio (DSR) stress test, which tightened lending standards for household debt.
Meanwhile, cash advance balances, which had been falling for seven consecutive months since February, also reversed course and increased in October. The cash advance balance at end-October was 6.1813 trillion won ($4.7 billion), up 61.9 billion won ($46.9 million) from 6.1193 trillion won ($4.6 billion) at end-September.
Revolving payment balances, which refer to the amount carried over for payment, declined slightly for the second consecutive month, falling from 6.7245 trillion won ($5.1 billion) to 6.7114 trillion won ($5.1 billion).
dghur@yna.co.kr
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