Bank loan delinquency ratio in South Korea fell in September as banks resolved bad debts in a bid to clean accounting books ahead of the quarter-end, financial watchdog data showed Wednesday.

Bank loans overdue at least one month came in at 0.54 percent of the total as of the end of September, down 0.07 percentage points from a month earlier, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The decline came as local banks resolved delinquent loans to clean their accounting books ahead of the end of the third quarter.

Banks resolved bad loans worth 2.3 trillion won (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in September, higher than fresh delinquent debts worth 1.3 trillion won (1.2 billion U.S. dollars).

The delinquency ratio for corporate loans shrank 0.09 percentage points from a month earlier to 0.79 percent as of the end of September.

The bad debt ratio for household loans fell 0.04 percentage points to 0.26 percent in the cited period.