Last Year Financial Institutions' IT Budget 7.2 Trillion Won... 12% Increase from Previous Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunbyeol Kim] The Bank of Korea announced on the 22nd that it has published the '2019 Financial Informatization Promotion Status.' The Financial Informatization Promotion Council, chaired by the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Korea, has been publishing the financial informatization promotion status annually since 1996.

The publication contains statistical data related to financial informatization, including the IT operation status as of 2019 and the usage status of electronic financial transaction services, based on surveys conducted on financial institutions and related organizations.

As of last year, the IT workforce of 151 domestic financial institutions totaled 9,880, with the proportion of IT personnel to total employees increasing from 4.2% to 4.3%. Among them, information security personnel numbered 930, marking a 1.9% increase compared to the previous year, continuing the upward trend since the statistics began in 2013, although the growth rate was smaller than the previous year's 8.5%.

In 2019, the IT budget of domestic financial institutions was 7.271 trillion KRW, a 12.0% increase from the previous year, significantly exceeding the total budget growth rate of 6.6%. Among this, the information security budget was 709.1 billion KRW (9.8% of the IT budget), increasing by 13.0% compared to the previous year.

As of the end of 2019, the number of CD/ATM machines installed domestically was 119,392, a 0.4% (507 units) decrease from the previous year. While the number of CD/ATMs directly installed and operated by banks and other financial institutions continued to decline, the devices operated by VAN operators in partnership with financial institutions increased. Usage of major electronic financial services such as internet banking continued to rise. Last year, the daily average number and amount of internet banking transactions (including mobile banking usage) by domestic banks (excluding Export-Import Bank) and postal financial services were 156.49 million transactions and 48.8153 trillion KRW, respectively, increasing by 31.7% and 2.7% compared to the previous year.