Card payments to surpass cash in South Korea by 2020

The South Korean card market is well developed with high card penetration and frequency of card payments. GlobalData’s report ‘South Korea Cards & Payments: Opportunities and Risks to 2023’ reveals that South Korean consumers are avid users of payment cards.

This is particularly true for credit cards, with the frequency of payments by credit cards standing at 132 times in 2019, much higher than in developed markets such as France, Canada, the US, and the UK.

Credit card payment value in South Korea, which increased from USD 495.7 billion in 2015 to USD 644 billion in 2019, is expected to grow further, reaching USD 820.9 billion by 2022. High financial awareness, robust payment infrastructure, and a constant focus on innovation are some of the factors that are driving card adoption in the country.

While credit cards continue to dominate, debit cards are also increasingly being used for payments. This has been supported by government measures to rein in the growing card debt and encourage debit card usage. For instance, debit card holders have access to a tax deduction of 30% on their debit card expenditure – double the equivalent for credit cards.