Earnings of South Korea's credit finance firms edged up last year from a year earlier, thanks to a steady gain in interest income from household and corporate lending, data showed Tuesday.
The combined net income of 97 credit finance companies reached 1.94 trillion won (US$1.69 billion) in 2018, up 1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).
The companies include capital financing firms and leasing companies but exclude credit card firms, the FSS said.
Their average loan delinquency ratio stood at 1.92 percent as of the end of last year, up 0.05 percentage point from the previous year, the FSS said.
Credit financing companies' assets totaled 143.5 trillion won at the end of 2018, up 9.5 percent from a year ago, according to the FSS.(Yonhap)