Mobile banking use rising in South Korea

Increased 10.2% in Q2 from Q1.

The daily use of mobile banking in South Korea rose on the back of the growing popularity of smartphones, said the Bank of Korea, the central bank.

Transactions by mobile banking or banking services accessed via wireless handsets were came to US$1.24 billion per day from April to June compared with US$1.12 billion per day three months earlier. The value of mobile banking via smartphones rose 10.4% on-quarter to US$1.20 billion in the second quarter.

The on-quarter growth of mobile banking slowed from an 11.5% in the first quarter but the use of mobile banking has been increasing due to the growing popularity of smart devices.

Mobile banking via smartphones was introduced in December 2009. It accounted for 38% of all daily Internet banking in the second quarter, said the BOK.

The value of online banking transactions reached an average of US$29.7 billion per day last quarter, up 0.8% from three months earlier.

The number of Internet banking subscribers registered with 19 financial firms rose 2.5% quarter-on-quarter to 91.6 million as of end-June.