Online Banking Surges
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday March 24, 2000
The number of customers using the Commonwealth Bank's online banking service has doubled to 400,000 during the past nine months, with major banks predicting the shift online will accelerate.
Commonwealth Securities the leader in online broking increased its customer numbers to 132,000, up from 60,000 last August.
``Our customers are rapidly moving all of their financial services online," said Commonwealth general manager eComm, Mr Stephen Coulter.
ANZ, which launched its online banking service last April, is forecasting its online banking customers will more than double by the end of the year.
The bank presently has 195,000 customers using online banking or about 6 per cent of its total customers and it expects that to increase to 400,000 by year end.
About 7,500 customers are registering to use online banking services each week. The most popular service is BPay which allows customers to pay bills over the Internet or phone.
About 25 per cent of BPay transactions done through ANZ are online.
A spokesman for ANZ said the growth in online banking over the next few years was expected to match the growth achieved by telephone banking in recent years.
About 1.8 million ANZ customers now bank over the phone, representing 60 per cent.
Westpac announced earlier this week that it has 200,000 online customers about 3.4 per cent of its customer base while National Australia Bank has about 170,000, or about 4.1 per cent.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald