Mobile payments surge 10% in S. Korea as card spending hits W3.78tr a day

Daily payment card spending in South Korea averaged 3.78 trillion won ($2.78 billion) in the first half of this year, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier, with mobile-based simple payment services driving much of the growth.

The Bank of Korea said Tuesday its domestic payment settlement report showed average daily card spending rose from 3.51 trillion won in the first half of last year to 3.78 trillion won in the same period this year.

Payment cards include personal and corporate credit cards, debit and cash cards, and prepaid cards.

The growth rate has accelerated steadily, rising from 3.7 percent in the first half of last year to 5.6 percent in the second half, and climbing further in the first half of this year — the highest rate since the second half of 2022, when spending jumped 13 percent.

Breaking down usage by method, the increase was driven primarily by card-based simple payment services, which allow transactions through mobile devices without presenting a physical card.

Daily spending on card transactions made without a physical card averaged 1.79 trillion won, up 10.6 percent from 1.62 trillion won in the first half of last year.

Card-based simple payment services accounted for 52.6 percent of that total, up 0.3 percentage points from 52.3 percent a year earlier.

Card-based simple payment services work by storing card information on a mobile device in advance and using biometric authentication — such as fingerprint recognition — at the point of sale.

Fintech providers held a 72 percent share of card-based simple payment usage, while card companies accounted for the remaining 28 percent.

By contrast, spending via physical card presentation grew just 2.5 percent, averaging 1.42 trillion won per day compared with 1.39 trillion won in the first half of last year.

By card type, postpaid cards — including credit cards — made up 79.7 percent of total card spending. Their daily average reached 3.01 trillion won, up 7.3 percent from 2.81 trillion won a year earlier.

Debit cards, including check cards, averaged 751 billion won per day, up 7.5 percent from 698 billion won in the first half of last year.

Daily internet banking transactions at domestic banks — including mobile banking — averaged 29.23 million cases and 106.4 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 6.8 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively, from 27.35 million cases and 85.9 trillion won in the same period last year.

Mobile banking alone averaged 26.5 million daily transactions, up 8 percent from a year earlier, while the daily transaction value rose 12.1 percent to 20.1 trillion won — the largest increase in two years since the first half of 2024, when it grew 17.6 percent.

Mobile banking accounted for 90.7 percent of all internet banking transactions by volume and 18.9 percent by value.