Non-physical card payments rise over 7 pct in 2025: BOK

▲ This file photo taken June 2, 2025, shows a customer using fingerprint recognition on a payment terminal at a convenience store in Seoul. (Yonhap)

card spending-tally

Non-physical card payments rise over 7 pct in 2025: BOK

SEOUL, March 30 (Yonhap) -- Mobile and other non-physical card payments rose markedly to account for more than half of total card spending last year, central bank data showed Monday.

The daily average value of credit, debit and prepaid card transactions by individuals and companies rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier to 3.1 trillion won (US$2.05 billion) in 2025, according to the data from the Bank of Korea (BOK).

Of the total, payments made via mobile devices and other non-physical channels, including e-commerce purchases and in-store payments using card readers and QR code scanners, surged 7.3 percent on-year to 1.7 trillion won.

By contrast, payments made using physical cards slipped 0.4 percent to 1.4 trillion won.

The share of mobile and other non-physical payments in total card spending rose to an all-time high of 54.3 percent in 2025.

The daily average volume of internet banking transactions at domestic banks, including mobile banking, climbed 10.9 percent on-year to 28.29 million cases, while the total value rose 3.4 percent to 90.1 trillion won, the data showed.

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