Electronic payments increase 13.8%

Electronic payments increased last year in both numbers of transactions and volume of payments, as more people chose to do online shopping, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said on Tuesday.

Korean consumers spent 252.4 billion won ($216.6 million) daily through electronic payments last year, up 13.8 percent from a year earlier. They made an average 194 million transactions a day, 2.7 percent more often than the previous year.

In particular, payments using payment gateway (PG) services grew more sharply than overall electronic payments. The payment gateway is a service that authorizes credit card payments for online retailers and traditional bricks-and-mortar stores.

Total payment volume via PG services reached 179.2 billion won last year, up 18.4 percent from the previous year. In 2015, 17.7 percent more transactions were made through the payment gateway from a year ago. ?

BY KIM YOUNG-NAM [kim.youngnam@joongang.co.kr]