Smartphones boost use of Internet banking services

Published : Mar 1, 2017 - 14:57 Updated : Mar 1, 2017 - 14:57

A growing number of South Koreans used Internet banking services last year due mainly to the widespread use of smartphones, a survey showed Wednesday.

The ratio of South Koreans aged above 12 who used Internet banking services stood at 57.5 percent in 2016, up 5.0 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the survey.

(Yonhap)

The 2016 figure represents a substantial hike from 2004, when 31.6 percent of South Koreans used Internet banking service.

The number of Internet banking service users has been on the rise in recent years as more people use their smartphones for Internet banking.

Among Internet banking service users, 87.1 percent said they used their smartphones for Internet banking in 2016, up 11.5 percentage points.

The survey was conducted on 61,238 people in 25,000 households across the country from August to October last year, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and the Korea Internet & Security Agency.

The number of smartphone-based banking service users came to 74.67 million in 2016, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea.

South Korea has a population of 51 million, but some people have multiple smartphones. (Yonhap)