SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- South Korea using mobile banking services hit a record high in the first half of this year as people refrained from visiting offline bank branches amid the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Wednesday.

The daily average amount of mobile banking services usage logged a new high of 12.6 trillion won (10.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period, up 19.8 percent from the previous six-month period, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK).

The daily average number of the services use increased by 13.3 percent to 14.05 million in the first half.

The double-digit increase came as people preferred online banking services amid the fear of the COVID-19 infection.

The daily average amount of Internet banking services use, including mobile banking, reached 68 trillion won (57 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half, up 8.6 percent from six months earlier.

The daily average amount of money transfer through Internet banking gained 8.7 percent to 67.3 trillion won (56.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the six-month period, but the figure for loan application fell 1.3 percent to 717.5 billion won (601.5 million U.S. dollars).

The number of Internet banking users was 186.57 million as of the end of June, up 5.6 percent from six months ago. The reading includes all registered users at local Internet and mobile banking services providers.

The number of mobile banking users added 7.9 percent to 145.80 million at the end of June. Enditem

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