SEOUL: The Bank of Korea is expecting a rise in the number of Internet banking accounts in the country, said an official from the South Korean central bank.
The bank announced yesterday that there are 115 million Internet banking accounts in South Korea, as of the end of September 2015, according to Korea Times. This finding was published in the Bank of Korea’s July-September quarterly report, which researched online banking subscriptions for 16 local banks and the Korea Post.
Many of these accounts might belong to the same customer, said the Bank of Korea, given that there are about 51 million people in South Korea. The report further noted that 60.08 million Internet banking subscriptions conduct banking services on their smartphones, which is a 4.4 per cent year-on-year increase.
According to the report, currently, there are 71.88 million mobile banking subscribers in the country. Internet banking users in South Korea are also turning away from using personal computers to conduct financial services, choosing instead to use their mobile devices, said an official of the Bank of Korea.
South Korea has a mobile penetration rate of 111 per cent, as of the end of 2013, according to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. It is also one of the most connected countries in the world, with a smartphone penetration rate of more than 70 per cent, as of June 2014.
