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Mobile payments make up nearly 54 percent of total card spending in H1: BOK

Published: 18 Sep. 2025, 13:57 Updated: 18 Sep. 2025, 21:12

A customer attempts to use Samsung Pay, a mobile wallet system operated by Samsung Electronics, at a convenience store in Seoul on June 2. [YONHAP]

Card spending via mobile devices rose more than 6 percent in the first half from a year earlier, with mobile payments accounting for well over half of total card usage, central bank data showed Thursday.

The daily average spending on credit and debit cards by individuals and businesses stood at 3.51 trillion won ($2.55 billion) during the January-June period, up 3.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

Excluding cash cards, payments made through channels other than physical cards, such as mobile devices, PCs and biometric authentication, increased 6.3 percent on year to 1.6 trillion won, while spending with physical cards fell 0.8 percent on year to 1.4 trillion won.

Accordingly, the proportion of payments made via mobile devices and other nonphysical channels, excluding cash cards, stood at 53.8 percent of total card transactions this year, up 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed.

Yonhap