South Koreans’ use of internet banking services soared 18 percent on-year in 2021 as customers preferred contactless services amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed.

The daily use of online banking services, including mobile banking, reached 17.32 million cases last year, up from 14.68 million a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

Mobile banking use came to 14.36 million instances per day, up 22.9 percent from a year earlier and accounting for nearly 83 percent of the total.

The value of daily transactions via online banking stood at 70.6 trillion won ($58.6 billion), up 19.6 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)