Online Shopping Surge... Last Year Electronic Payment Gateway Up 16.4%

The Bank of Korea announced on the 24th that last year, the usage performance (daily average amount) of electronic payment services, including electronic payment gateway (PG) and prepaid electronic payment instruments, increased by 16.4% and 24.5% respectively compared to the previous year.

Electronic payment services are payment-related services provided by electronic financial operators and financial companies in connection with e-commerce or peer-to-peer transactions under the Electronic Financial Transactions Act. They are classified into electronic payment gateway, prepaid electronic payment instruments, payment escrow, and electronic billing payment.

First, the daily average usage of the electronic payment gateway service last year was 23.66 million transactions, amounting to 1.0529 trillion KRW. Compared to the previous year, the number of transactions and the amount increased by 8.9% and 16.4%, respectively.

This service involves transmitting and receiving payment information or acting as a settlement agent so that payments from buyers in e-commerce can ultimately be paid to sellers.

The Bank of Korea explained, "The increase was centered on credit card payment gateway services, which account for most of the PG services, due to the rise in online transactions."

Also, the prepaid electronic payment instrument service, which pays for commercial transactions and transportation fares using prepaid funds charged in advance through card or account linkage, recorded a daily average of 27.08 million transactions (828.9 billion KRW) last year, increasing by 13.6% (24.5%) compared to the previous year. This was influenced by the steady increase in usage of simple payment and simple remittance services by electronic financial operators.

The payment escrow service, which receives payment from buyers in e-commerce, verifies whether the transaction was properly conducted through the goods receipt confirmation process, and then pays the purchase amount to the seller, recorded 3.12 million transactions (155.7 billion KRW).

The number of transactions decreased by 2.0% compared to the previous year, but the transaction amount increased by 2.7%.

The electronic billing payment service, which acts as a settlement agent for bills such as apartment management fees and electricity and gas charges via email, apps, etc., recorded 250,000 transactions (56.9 billion KRW), increasing by 12.2% (14.3%).

The daily average usage count and amount of simple payment services were 23.42 million transactions and 732.6 billion KRW, increasing by 18.2% and 20.8%, respectively. The simple remittance service recorded 5.2 million transactions (625.9 billion KRW), increasing by 19.9% (24.1%) over one year.