Overall use of electronic payment services increased last year, indicating that the spread of non-face-to-face payments continued.

According to the Bank of Korea's "Status of Electronic Payment Service Usage in 2025" released on Thursday, average daily transaction values for payment gateway (PG) services and prepaid electronic payment instrument services rose 9.2 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

PG services averaged 33.64 million transactions a day worth 1.55 trillion won. The number of transactions and the value increased 11.8 percent and 9.2 percent, respectively. Credit card-based payment agency services accounted for 75 percent of the total and led the increase.

Prepaid electronic payment instrument services also expanded. Average daily use totalled 36.54 million transactions worth 1.31 trillion won, with the number of transactions and the value up 8.0 percent and 11.0 percent, respectively. The increase was attributed to higher use of easy payments and easy remittances.

Escrow services, which supplement payment stability, also increased. Average daily transactions rose 17.4 percent to 5.01 million, and the value increased 8.0 percent to 199.0 billion won.

Electronic bill presentment and payment also continued to expand. The service, which processes bills such as apartment maintenance fees and utility charges electronically, averaged 310,000 transactions a day worth 89.1 billion won, up 4.2 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively.

Growth in easy payment use was more pronounced. Average daily easy payment services totalled 35.57 million transactions worth 1.11 trillion won, up 14.9 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. Easy remittances also rose 2.9 percent and 7.3 percent to 7.42 million transactions worth 978.5 billion won.

The share of electronic financial business operators in the easy payment market continued to expand, increasing their influence in the payment market.

As of end-2025, there were 250 electronic payment service providers, including 226 electronic financial business operators and 24 financial companies. The number of electronic financial business operators increased by 35 from a year earlier.