Internet banking transactions in Korea jump to record high in 2015

Internet banking transactions in South Korea surged to a record high last year with the daily amount of money transferred through internet banking services breaching 40 trillion won ($32.79 billion) for the first time in history, central bank data showed Thursday.

The number of daily transactions processed via Internet and mobile phones came to an average 78.02 million in 2015, spiking 17.4 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The amount of money processed through such means also surged 9.3 percent on-year to an average 40.29 trillion won per day.

Such a large increase was partly attributed to a rise in the sheer number of users, which jumped 13.2 percent on-year to 116.86 million as of end-2015. The number also includes users of mobile phone-based banking services, which added some 16.45 million new subscribers from the previous year to 76.56 million in 2015.

The number of subscribers to Internet banking services has been on a steady rise from 86.4 million in 2012 to 95.5 million in 2013, and breaching the 100-million mark in 2014.

Mobile phone banking service users accounted for nearly 65 percent of all Internet banking users. However, the amount processed via mobile phone services accounted for only 6.2 percent of the total 40.29 trillion won, apparently suggesting that people are still reluctant to handle large transactions through their mobile phones.