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Card companies, capital firms and savings banks are seeing a spike in delinquency rates in short-term small loans, a spillover from the tightening of household lending regulations on commercial banks, market watchers said Sunday.

This development fuels concerns over a further surge in extended distress loans, an indicator of greater-than-feared economic sluggishness. It is exacerbated by years of postpandemic monetary tightening and the resulting sustained high borrowing costs.

Loans are considered delinquent if interest payments on card loans, cash advances and unsecured loans are 30 or more days past due. Also included are late payments on credit card bills, monthly installments and revolving loans.

According to the financial industry, the three loans soared to 900 billion won ($640 million), up from 800 billion won in July. It was a further jump from 700 billion won in August. The combined outstanding amount of the three loans extended by card and capital firms came to 2.9 trillion won in the first 10 months of this year.

Card loans granted by the country's nine card firms came to 42.2 trillion won last month, up 5.33 trillion won from the previous month. It broke the previous record in August.

Woori Card's delinquency rate stood at 1.78 percent as of end-September, up 0.56 percentage points from a year earlier.

The figure for Hana Card came to 1.82 percent, up 0.16 percentage points from 1.66 percent over the same period.

KB Kookmin Card's rate climbed to 1.29 percent, up 0.07 percentage points from 1.22 percent.

The figure for Shinhan Card remained at 1.33 percent, down from 1.35 percent, over the same period.

The delinquency rates of savings banks soared to the mid-8 percent range as of the end of September, driven by project financing woes over the past year.

The range is an improvement from the previous 12-year high of 6.55 percent as of the end of December last year. It was a dip from 8.36 percent as of the end of June.