The delinquency rate of domestic banks’ won-denominated (WD) loans—classified as the percentage of loans with principal of interest payment past due by at least one month—as of end-September 2020 stood at 0.30%, down 0.07%p from a month ago and down 0.14%p from a year ago. The amount of newly delinquent loans decreased KRW0.1 trillion from a month earlier, but that of resolved loans jumped KRW1.7 trillion. This contributed to the month-on-month decrease in the delinquency rate in September.

Foreign investors bought a net KRW1.3580 trillion of listed stocks and a net KRW208.0 billion of listed bonds in October 2020. The cumulative holdings of listed stocks came in at KRW584.8 trillion in total, 30.4% of total market capitalization. Meanwhile, the bond holdings totaled KRW150.7 trillion, representing 7.4% of total listed bonds.

The amount of asset-backed securities (ABS) issued in the third quarter of 2020 came in at KRW18.7 trillion in total, up KRW9.1 trillion or 95.4% from the same period a year earlier. The Korea Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) expanded mortgage-backed securities (MBS) by KRW5.3 trillion from a year ago, which mostly contributed to the growth in the ABS issuance in July-to-September period. Also, financial companies and non-financial companies expanded their issuance by KRW3.2 trillion and KRW0.6 trillion, respectively, from a year ago.

Corporate financing through debt and equity issues in September 2020 came to KRW17.2834 trillion in total, up KRW2.1507 trillion from a month earlier. Meanwhile, corporate financing through issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term electronic bond totaled KRW124.7576 trillion, up KRW13.3843 trillion from a month earlier.

The Financial Supervisory Service and the British Embassy in Seoul signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate in the climate finance sector. Under the MOU, the FSS participates in multilateral initiatives pertaining to climate finance, committing to developing and operating stress testing models for climate changes. The British Embassy supports the climate finance tasks of the FSS and helps to facilitate human exchanges between the FSS and UK institutions. In addition, the MOU provides a basis for mutual cooperation between the FSS and the British Embassy to promote joint research on climate finance to the extent possible. The mutual cooperation is expected to help increase competences in dealing with climate risk and establish a system for soundness supervision regarding climate changes.

The delinquency rate of domestic banks’ won-denominated (WD) loans—classified as the percentage of loans with principal of interest payment past due by at least one month—as of end-August 2020 stood at 0.38%, up 0.02%p from a month ago and down 0.13%p from a year ago. The amount of newly delinquent loans decreased KRW0.2 trillion from a month earlier, and that of resolved loans shrank KRW0.1 trillion as well. This contributed to the month-on-month decrease in the delinquency rate in August.

Foreign investors sold a net KRW2.5480 trillion of listed stocks and a net KRW31.0 billion of listed bonds in September 2020. The cumulative holdings of listed stocks came in at KRW598.4 trillion in total, 30.3% of total market capitalization. Meanwhile, the bond holdings totaled KRW151.0 trillion, representing 7.5% of total listed bonds.

The risk-based capital ratios (actual solvency capital divided by the minimum solvency capital required) of domestic insurance companies as of end-June 2020 stood at 277.2%, up 10.0%p from 267.2% three months earlier.

As of end-June 2020, there were 110 credit-specialized financial companies (CSFCs) excluding credit card companies. The CSFCs’ aggregate assets came in at KRW171.2 trillion at the end of June 2020, up KRW18.6 trillion or 12.2% from the same period a year ago. Inherent business assets grew KRW6.1 trillion to KRW64.4 trillion as assets increased in every sector from facility leasing to installment financing and to venture capital business. Loan assets also increased KRW8.1 trillion to KRW79.8 trillion mainly due to the growth of business loans.

The Financial Supervisory Service held the FSS SPEAKS 2020, an annual forum for communication and dialogue between foreign financial companies and the FSS, on September 28, 2020. The annual forum this year adopted a contact-free method—online video conference system, and more than 200 executives and employees from foreign financial firms attended the video conferencing.

Corporate financing through debt and equity issues in August 2020 came to KRW15.1327 trillion in total, down KRW4.6428 trillion from a month earlier. Meanwhile, corporate financing through issuance of commercial paper (CP) and short-term electronic bond in August totaled KRW111.3733 trillion, up KRW7.0395 trillion month on month.

The Financial Supervisory Service and Ewha Womans University jointly held an international conference and a job fair at the Ewha Campus Complex (ECC) on September 22, 2020.

The Financial Supervisory Service and Ewha Womans University are going to hold an international conference and a job fair at the Ewha Campus Complex (ECC) on September 22, 2020.

The number of financial holding companies (FHCs) was ten as of end-June 2020. Compared to six months earlier, the number of subsidiary units increased from 243 to 250, and that of offices also increased by 155 to 8,775. Accordingly, the number of employees grew by 5.4% to 162,417 from the end of 2019.

As of end-June 2020, the number of credit cards issued by credit card companies (CCCs) and banks came to KRW112.53 million, 3.5% greater than the same period a year earlier. When it came to check (debit) cards, the cumulative number of issued cards came to 111.59 million in total, 0.2% less than a year ago.