The total amount of delinquent loans in December decreased by 7.5 percent and at the end of last year stood at LVL 3.9 billion, 25.5 percent of the banks' total loan portfolio, according to information released by the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC). .

However, the amount of loans with payments delayed by over 90 days increased in December by 3.2 percent; the proportion of such loans in the banks' total loan portfolio stood at 16.4 percent at the end of the year. In November this figure had stood at 15.8 percent.

The total amount of loans without late payments reached LVL 11.5 billion at end-2009, which is 74.5 percent of the banking sector's overall loan portfolio - up from 72.6 percent in November, informs Leta.

The banking sector's overall loan portfolio shrank by 0.7 percent in December and stood at LVL 15.4 billion at the end of the month; the amount of loans for resident businesses decreased slightly faster than that for resident households - by 1.5 percent and 0.6 percent respectively.

Nevertheless, the loan portfolios of 11 Latvian banks and the branches of two foreign banks increased in December by LVL 37 million altogether. These banks' total share of the banking sector's overall loan portfolio amounts to 12.4 percent.

As reported earlier, the losses of Latvian banks last year reached LVL 773.4 million, according to the FCMC.