KAMCO purchases 74 tril. won of bad loans

From the economic crisis until now, the Korea Asset Management Corporation(KAMCO) has acquired more than 74.6 trillion won (book value) in non-performing loans (NPLs) from financial institutions.

In an operations report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Commission(FSC) by KAMCO, from 1997, when the crisis started, to this July, KAMCO has purchased a total of 74.6 trillion won of NPLs, using 20.5 trillion won in public funds and 8.7 trillion won in recovered public funds, which adds up to 29.2 trillion in injected funds.

Once the government decides on a distressed debt acquisition policy for financial institutions, KAMCO will take on more NPLs as part of the second round of restructuring.

As of now, KAMCO has 6.5 trillion won of available resources following the disposition of bad loans (excluding 2 trillion won loaned from the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation), but considering the total NPL volume for acquisition is around 11 trillion won for the second half of this year, the sale of held assets will have to be moved up or additional public funds need to be procured.