[THE INVESTOR] The amount of payments made electronically hit a fresh record high last year amid a growing trend of Koreans using the internet and mobile devices to carry out their financial transactions, central bank data showed on April 3.
The daily average for electronic financial transactions came to 468.8 billion won (US$442.80 million) in 2017, up 36.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the Bank of Korea. Electronic financial transactions include all Internet and mobile-based payments, as well as purchases made with electronic credit and debit cards.
The number has been setting new records every year since 2007 when the central bank started collecting data on e-payments.
The data also showed the daily average number of electronic financial transactions jumped 11.5 percent on-year to 22.6 million.
Meanwhile, transactions by mobile payments or digital wallet services like Samsung Pay and KakaoPay surged 180.1 percent on-year to an average of 2.81 million transactions worth 102.3 billion won on a daily basis in 2017, the BOK data added.
By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (
ssh@heraldcorp.com)