The daily use of mobile banking in South Korea rose 10.2 percent in the second quarter from three months earlier on the back of the growing popularity of smartphones, the central bank said Thursday. Transactions by mobile banking or banking services accessed via wireless handsets were valued at 1.39 trillion won (US$1.24 billion) per day in the April-June period, compared with 1.26 trillion won three months earlier, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The on-quarter growth of mobile banking slowed from an 11.5 percent gain in the first quarter, but the use of mobile banking has been on the rise due to the growing popularity of smart devices. The value of mobile banking via smartphones rose 10.4 percent on-quarter to 1.35 trillion won in the second quarter, it noted. Mobile banking via smartphones, a service that was introduced in December 2009, showed sustained growth. Mobile banking accounted for 38.1 percent of all daily Internet banking in the second quarter, the BOK added. Meanwhile, the value of online banking transactions reached an average of 33.3 trillion won per day last quarter, up 0.8 percent from three months earlier, the bank added. The data is based on users checking financial records, transferring funds or taking out loans through the Internet. The number of Internet banking subscribers registered with 19 financial firms advanced 2.5 percent on-quarter to 91.6 million as of end-June. The data is an aggregated tally, including the use of multiple banks for online banking services. Nearly nine out of 10 households in South Korea have access to cheap broadband Internet. There are more than 30 million smartphone users in the country, making up about 60 percent of the total population