Internet banking transactions have reached the W10 quadrillion mark, an explosive increase rate of about 20 percent per year (US$1=W1,345).

The Financial Supervisory Service on Monday said Internet banking transactions amounted to W10,204 trillion last year, up 19 percent from W8,376 trillion the year before.

Online banking was introduced here in September 1998. The number of online transactions reached 1,660.86 million in 2008, up 20 percent from 1,382.82 million cases year-on-year.

But the number of transactions at bank windows fell 6 percent from 1,156.23 million cases in 2007 to 1,084.5 million in 2008. The total number of transactions outside banks, including Internet banking, mobile banking and ATMs, reached 5 billion instances in 2008, accounting for 82 percent of all banking transactions, while those at bank windows dropped to a mere 1 billion.