NongHyup Credit Union said on the 11th it appointed Lee Jong-sung, a former senior managing director at United Asset Management Company (UAMCO), as head of its non-performing loan subsidiary KCU NPL Loan, also referred to in sector coverage as KCU NPL Daebu. The move comes as South Korea's mutual finance sector enlarges NPL units and launches asset management firms to address worsening asset quality. Across the sector, the ratio of loans classified as substandard or below rose to 5.55% at the end of last year, up 0.29 percentage points from a year earlier, while the delinquency rate climbed to 4.62% from 2.97% two years earlier. NongHyup Credit Union is also targeting the launch of an NCU Asset Management Company by year-end, after establishing a legal basis for the vehicle, to improve member cooperatives' financial soundness and accelerate distressed asset resolution.