Seoul: Loans extended by insurance companies here fell in the first quarter of this year from three months earlier due to increased lending to households, data showed Wednesday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, insurers' outstanding loans reached 264.1 trillion won (US$176 billion) as of end-March, down 1.1 trillion won from three months earlier. The data from the Financial Supervisory Service indicated that the on-quarter fall was attributed to a rise in loans extended to households.

Their household lending stood at 134.5 trillion won as of end-March, up 0.5 trillion won from the previous quarter. In contrast, corporate lending fell 1.7 trillion won to 129.5 trillion won over the cited period.

The loan delinquency rate, which measures the proportion of loan principal or interest unpaid for at least a month, stood at 0.82 percent at end-March, down 0.02 percentage points from three months earlier, according to the financial watchdog. The rate of insurers' nonperforming loans came to 1.13 percent at the end of March, up 0.1 percentage points from three months earlier, the data showed.