S. Korea's smartphone banking registration jumps 30 pct in 2014

Smartphone banking registration in South Korea jumped 30 percent in 2014 in tandem with growing usage of smartphones, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The number of smartphone-based banking users was 48.2 million as of end-2014, up 30 percent from a year ago, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). The figure was based on users registered with 17 domestic banks and the Korea Post.

The smartphone banking users kept surging from 13,000 in December 2009 when the wireless banking service was introduced, to 2.61 million in 2010, 10.36 million in 2011, 23.97 million in 2012 and 37.19 million in 2013.

The number of Internet banking users, including mobile phone- based users, was 103.19 million as of end-2014, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier.

The daily average transactions via Internet banking amounted to 36.85 trillion won (33.51 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, up 9.5 percent from a year ago.