The third generation mobile banking in Korea

It is expected that m-banking service based on the so-called the third generation mobile banking, that is in reality WCDMA phones with USIM cards, will stimulate the market.  
 
Now subscribers can use new USIM banking, which is referred to the service based on USIM chip in WCDMA phones. They just need to buy USIM chip at some of the banks, which transfer their banking information to the chip and then download VM program. 

It is also possible to use separate chips from various banks, but it is necessary to note that not every mobile phone supports the service.
 
However, usually one single chip for WCDMA phones can do it all. The majority of WCDMA phones support even broader services, i.e. credit card, stock trading, transportation card, membership card, and other.
 
According to the statistics, by March 2008, 5.7 million were using mobile banking in Korea that is 13% increase. Central bank of Korea relates it to the increasing number of the virtual machine (VM) users.   
 
The general figures are more that just reliable: so, the researches have revealed that during the first quarter of 2008, about 890,000 mobile banking transactions have been conducted that is 4.1% growth in comparison to the last year. It is necessary to note that the share of mobile banking in the industry of the Internet payments 4.2 percent for the number of transactions and 0.5 percent for the amount of the money.

As it can be seen from the results, m-banking technology becomes one of the priority businesses and accounts for 600,000 cases per day. The second service after e-checks is money transfer with 120,000 transaction per day.