South Korea's bank delinquency rate on won-denominated loans reached 0.56% at the end of June, the highest level for the month since 2016, despite falling 0.11 percentage point from May as lenders accelerated quarter-end debt cleanup. The rate was up 0.04 percentage point from a year earlier, led by corporate loans, whose delinquency rate rose 0.08 percentage point year over year to 0.68%. The rate was 0.22% for large companies and 0.82% for small and medium-sized enterprises, while delinquencies among small and mid-sized corporations reached 0.92%, the highest June level since 2016. Sole proprietor loans stood at 0.69%. Newly delinquent loans totaled 2.6 trillion won ($1.9 billion), while 5.3 trillion won ($3.9 billion) in delinquent debt was cleared. Household-loan delinquencies declined 0.01 percentage point year over year to 0.40%, with mortgage delinquencies falling to 0.28% and non-mortgage household loans declining to 0.77%. The Financial Supervisory Service warned that delinquency rates could rebound amid economic uncertainty and rising global interest rates, and said it would encourage banks to expand their loss-absorbing capacity and write off or sell non-performing loans.