Mobile bank account access tops 40 million

The number of bank accounts accessed by phone surpassed 40 million in March, according to the central bank yesterday.

The Bank of Korea said in a report that 40.34 million bank accounts from 19 financial institutions had been accessed on phones and smartphones, up 8.5 percent from the end of the previous quarter. It is the highest quarter-to-quarter growth since mobile banking services were first offered in December 2009.

“The number - 40.34 million - includes dual-service users,” the BOK said in a statement, meaning that the number of people using banking services on their phones is less than 40 million. “The number is part of the 97.7 million users of overall online banking services, which is up 2.4 percent from three months ago.”

The number also includes phones no longer in use on which an individual had previously accessed their bank account.

The central bank added that the number of issued authentication certificates went up 0.5 percent as of the end of March. A total of 26.04 million certificates were in use.

The number of people who use mobile banking services with integrated circuit (IC) chips and virtual machines dropped 11.2 percent over the same period.

The BOK said that 36.14 trillion won have been transferred via mobile banking services in the first three months of the year, up 3.9 percent from the previous quarter. Mobile banking services allow a user to transfer money, submit loan requests and make inquiries.

“Of the total amount of money circulated using online banking services, the portion of smartphone banking was 43 percent while the total volume was 4.5 percent,” said a BOK official. “There is still a big gap, which shows that smartphone banking services are focused mainly on inquiry services and transferring small amounts of cash.”

BY LEE EUN-JOO [angie@joongang.co.kr]