[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s internet banking service rose at a fast clip in the first quarter, central bank data showed on May 30.

In the three months that ended on March 31, the number of internet and smartphone banking service users came to 125.32 million, up 2.3 percent from the previous quarter, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.

The number is the sum of all registered users of 16 internet and smartphone banking service providers in Korea, including commercial banks.

The average number of daily transactions processed via the internet and smartphones came to 94.1 million in the first quarter, up 5.9 percent from the previous quarter, while the average amount of money processed through such means dropped 4.6 percent to 41.91 trillion won (US$37.30 billion).

Among them, the number of daily transactions processed via smartphones jumped 7.3 percent on-quarter to more than 57.3 million, with the amount of daily transactions also surging 8.3 percent to 3.62 trillion won over the cited period, according to the BOK.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)