South Korea's savings banks improved their financial soundness in the first nine months of this year partly thanks to a sharp increase in their net profits, official data showed Tuesday.

The aggregate net income of 79 savings banks here jumped 71.8 percent on-year to 764.5 billion won ($644 million) during the January-September period, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). It added the figure is a provisional one.

Their total assets came to 49.9 trillion won as of Sept. 30, up 6 trillion won from the end of 2015.

The delinquency rate fell 2.3 percentage points to 6.9 percent over the nine months. The delinquency rate of loans to companies dropped 3.3 percentage points to 7.7 percent, while that to households declined 0.8 percentage point to 6 percent.

The ratio of loans classified as substandard or below (SBLs) stood at 7.8 percent, down 2.4 percentage points.

Their BIS capital ratio grew 0.56 percentage point to 14.7 percent.

"This was mostly due to a rise in shareholders' equity exceeding a growth in risk-weighted assets," the FSS said. "The savings banking industry's soundness improved during the cited period as the size of profits and assets increased." (Yonhap)