S Korean credit card firms' default rate rises

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Chinese media) -- The delinquency rate of South Korean credit card

firms rose in the fourth of last year from three months earlier amid the ongoing

economic slumping, the Korea Times reported on Thursday.

The default ratio of Samsung Card and four other card firms reached 3.43

percent at the end of last year, up 0.15 percentage point from three months

earlier, data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) showed.

It was the first time that the delinquency ratio rebounded since 2003 when

a credit card bubble burst in South Korea with a default rate of card companies

of 28.3 percent by the end of 2003, the FSS said.

The South Korean economy declined 5.6 percent in the final quarter of 2008

from the previous quarter, which was the deepest fall since the 1997-1998 Asian

financial crisis.