Bad loans continued growing rapidly even in the third quarter of this year, confirming the severe financial problems businesses and individuals are facing to pay them off and somehow justifying the commercial banks' tougher lending standards since the beginning of 2010.

Central bank data show problematic or non-performing loans climbed to a record 13.5 percent of the total portfolio at the end of the third quarter of this year, up from 9.82 percent during the same quarter in 2009 and 12 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2010.

Provision for bad loans also climbed to 8.16 percent at the end of September 2010, up from 7.31 percent last June and 6 percent in September 2009.

Lost loans at the end of the third quarter of 2010 increased to 3.88 percent, up from 3.53 percent in the previous quarter and 2.68 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of doubtful loans also rose to 3.79 percent, up from 3.13 percent in the previous quarter and 2.37 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

The percentage of substandard loans also registered a slight increase of 0.5 percent compared to the second quarter climbing to 5.84 percent of the total loans, but remained high compared to third quarter of 2009 when they were at 4.77 percent of the total.