The use of mobile banking in South Korea more than doubled in 2011 from a year ago on the back of the ballooning local smartphone user population, the central bank said Monday.

Mobile banking transactions reached an average of 7.67 million per day in 2011, growing more than two fold from 3.74 million in the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea.

The daily transaction amount surged 57 percent on-year to 652.6 billion won ($587.6 million), while the number of mobile banking users jumped 50.6 percent to 23.72 million, it added. The data is based on users checking financial records, transferring funds and taking out loans via mobile phones.

The sharp growth came as more consumers opted to use mobile banking via their smartphones. South Korea witnessed a substantial increase in smartphone users last year, with the figure exceeding the 20 million mark in October. This indicates that around 80 percent of 25 million economically active South Koreans are smartphone users.

According to the BOK data, the number of daily smartphone banking transactions and the respective amount of money transferred each jumped around six-fold and eight-fold last year.

“It’s hard to forecast the figures for the future, but an explosive growth in smartphone user population surely boosted mobile banking use in 2011,” said a BOK official, noting that the number of smartphone banking users surpassed the 10 million mark for the first time last year.

Meanwhile, the central bank said mobile banking accounted for 19.7 percent of all online banking transactions last year, nearly doubling from 11.2 percent in 2010.

Overall Internet banking use gained 17 percent on-year to 39 million transactions per day with daily transactions on average totaling 31.92 trillion won, up 7.9 percent from a year earlier, according to the BOK. 

(Yonhap News)