PANews reported on December 30 that according to data provided by the Financial Supervisory Service of the National Assembly of South Korea, the overdue rate of personal credit loans of K Bank's virtual asset-linked accounts reached 1.28% in the third quarter of this year, and the overdue balance reached 47.4 billion won, a record high. Since the virtual asset-linked accounts were provided in June 2020, their overdue rates and overdue balances have continued to rise, especially for low- and medium-credit customers, which has a high overdue rate of 2.2%, more than three times that of high-credit customers.
As Upbit's Korean won account partner bank, K Bank has benefited from the recent boom in the virtual asset market, but over-reliance on Upbit is also seen as a "double-edged sword." Although the increase in investor deposits has created revenue for the bank, the deposit interest rate has risen from 0.1% to 2.1% due to regulatory adjustments, which has also significantly increased the bank's interest expenses. In addition, the volatility and uncertainty of the virtual asset market may further affect its asset quality.
Compared with competitors such as Kakao Bank and Toss Bank, K Bank's non-yielding loan balance reached 207.2 billion won in the third quarter of 2023, far higher than its peers. Analysts pointed out that K Bank needs to reduce the overall delinquency rate by increasing mortgage loans or loans to high-credit customers to improve asset quality and clear obstacles for the planned IPO.
