16% Increase in Electronic Payment Gateway Usage in First Half of Year... Online Transactions Up

(Asia Economy DB)

As online transactions such as online shopping increase, the amount used for electronic payment gateway (PG) services rose by 16% in the first half of this year.

On the 6th, the Bank of Korea announced that the scale of electronic payment services provided by electronic financial operators and financial companies, including electronic payment gateway (PG) and prepaid electronic payment means services (daily average, amount basis), increased by 16.0% and 20.8%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

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

First, the daily average usage of electronic payment gateway services last year was 25.1 million cases, amounting to 1.1845 trillion KRW.

This service involves transmitting and receiving payment information or settling the payment on behalf of the parties so that the payment from the buyer in electronic commerce can be ultimately paid to the seller.

The Bank of Korea explained, "The usage scale increased mainly centered on online transaction credit card payment gateway services, which account for most of the PG services." According to Statistics Korea, the growth rate of online shopping transaction amounts compared to the same period last year was 10.9% in the first half of last year and 7.2% in the first half of this year, steadily increasing.

The prepaid electronic payment means service, which pays for commercial transaction amounts and transportation fares with prepaid funds charged in advance through card or account linkage, recorded a daily average of 28.75 million cases (968.2 billion KRW) in the first half of this year, increasing by 8.6% (20.8%) compared to the same period last year.

This was influenced by the continued growth in the usage scale of simple payment and simple remittance services by electronic financial operators. However, the amount used by financial companies decreased from 39.14 billion KRW in the first half of last year to 32.33 billion KRW in the first half of this year due to the reduction of COVID-19 related disaster relief funds.

The payment escrow service, which receives payment from the buyer in electronic commerce and verifies whether the transaction was properly conducted through the process of confirming receipt of goods before paying the purchase amount to the seller, recorded 3.2 million cases (154.5 billion KRW).

Additionally, the electronic billing payment service, which settles bills such as apartment management fees and electricity and gas charges via email or apps, recorded 270,000 cases (66.3 billion KRW), increasing by 10.7% (18.6%).

The usage scale of simple payment services was 26.28 million cases (845.1 billion KRW), increasing by 13.4% (16.9%) compared to the same period last year. Simple remittance services grew by 24.2% (23.9%) during the same period, recording 6.1 million cases (746.1 billion KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.