Household Loans Surge by 4.1 Trillion Won at Major Banks in June

Household loans are experiencing a renewed surge despite banks tightening lending practices. With an increase in mortgage loans and a rapid expansion of personal credit loans driven by investment borrowing, household loans rose by more than 4 trillion won last month.

According to financial authorities on July 1, the five major banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, and NH Nonghyup) reported a household loan balance of 774.96 trillion won at the end of June, up 4.14 trillion won from 770.83 trillion won at the end of May. This marks the largest increase since July of last year, which saw an increase of 4.14 trillion won.

The trend in household loan balances this year showed a decrease in January (-1.87 trillion won) and March (-136.4 billion won), indicating a temporary slowdown. However, loans rebounded in April with an increase of 1.57 trillion won, followed by further increases in May (3.53 trillion won) and June.

The surge in household loans is primarily attributed to mortgage and credit loans. The balance of mortgage loans at the five major banks reached 615.15 trillion won at the end of June, an increase of 1.76 trillion won from May, marking three consecutive months of growth. Personal credit loans increased by 2.16 trillion won to 108.67 trillion won, the largest increase in 21 months since September 2024.

As demand for investment borrowing spreads, personal credit loans continue to rise at an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, loans to individual business owners saw a slight increase of 33.3 billion won in May but dropped by 398.4 billion won in June.

In line with the trend of expanding productive finance, the balance of loans to large corporations at the five major banks reached 190.36 trillion won, an increase of 4.93 trillion won from the previous month. In contrast, loans to small and medium-sized enterprises decreased to 682.72 trillion won, down 1.73 trillion won from May, marking the first decline in six months since December 2025.

The five major banks reported a total of 949.40 trillion won in time deposits, an increase of 4.68 trillion won. Regular savings deposits rose by 267.7 billion won to 46.92 trillion won. The balance of demand deposits, which are considered liquid funds, reached 722.29 trillion won, up 7.64 trillion won from the end of May.