Internet banking use up 27 percent last year

The use of Internet banking in Korea rose 27 percent last year from a year earlier as more people conducted financial transactions online for convenience, the central bank said Tuesday.

Online banking transactions reached 33.7 million per day on average in 2010, compared with 26.5 million the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea. The data is based on users checking financial records, transferring funds or taking out loans via the Internet.

The total value of Internet banking transactions came to 29.7 trillion won ($26.9 billion) per day, up 16.6 percent from the previous year, it added.

The number of Internet banking subscribers registered with 19 local financial firms climbed 12.6 percent on-year to 66.7 million as of the end of last year.

The majority of transactions were conducted via computers, but the weight of mobile banking, or banking services accessed via wireless handsets, has been on the rise. Transactions based on mobile banking accounted for 8.4 percent out of the use of Internet banking, up from 6.5 percent in 2009. The value of such transactions jumped 53.5 percent on-year to a daily average of 408.7 billion won, the central bank said.

The use of mobile banking using smartphones, which was introduced in December 2009, reached 952,000 last year, whose value came in at 46.8 billion won.

Nearly nine out of 10 households in Korea have access to cheap broadband Internet. The nation’s computer penetration rate is among the highest in the world. 

(Yonhap News)