S. Koreans' Internet banking use inches up in Q2

The use of Internet banking in South Korea rose 0.7 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier as more people conducted financial transactions online, the central bank said Sunday. Online banking transactions reached an average of 38.9 million per day in the April-June period, compared with 38.7 million the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). 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 31.3 trillion won (US$29.7 billion) per day, up 0.2 percent from three months earlier, the BOK added. The number of Internet banking subscribers registered with the 19 local financial firms climbed 2.7 percent on-quarter to 70.9 million as of the end of June. 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 18.4 percent of total Internet banking use, up from 17.4 percent three months earlier. The value of such transactions rose 4 percent on-quarter to a daily average of 610 billion won, the BOK said. Mobile banking via smartphones, a service that was introduced in December 2009, showed sustained growth on the back of the devices' popularity. The number of transactions based on smartphones reached 5.1 million in the second quarter valued at 298.9 billion won, up 37.1 percent from the preceding quarter. Nearly nine out of 10 households in South Korea have access to cheap broadband Internet. The nation's computer penetration rate is among the highest in the world.