UK online banks attract fewer visitors than their German and French competitors, according to new figures from researcher Jupiter MMXI.
Computing, 18 Jan 2001
UK online banks attract fewer visitors than their German and French competitors, according to new figures from researcher Jupiter MMXI.
Research into unique visits made by retail customers to a range of business and finance websites revealed that between January and November last year, the UK dropped from first to third behind Germany and France, which respectively doubled and trebled their numbers of online customers.
Jupiter said that the percentage of UK citizens banking online from home rose from 26.2 per cent to 31.7 per cent during the 11-month period. At the same time, the percentage of people banking online increased from 17.8 per cent to 34.2 per cent in Germany, and from 11.4 per cent to 33.8 per cent in France.
The UK is also falling behind in the time users spend at the sites. German users are spending an average of 83 minutes per visit to a finance site, compared with 43 minutes in France, and 30 minutes in the UK.
Mari Kim Coleman, UK managing director at Jupiter, said that compared with France and Germany, the rapid initial growth of UK online banking peaked early. "By last January, the UK was already a mature market. The big traditional high street banks came online early and established themselves," she said.
The challenge for online banks in 2001 is to encourage account usage, explained Nick Jones, a senior analyst at the researcher. "Banks still need to make the use of their online services simpler, and they must add tools and content on their websites to help customers manage their money," he said.
The top 10 finance sites in the UK are: egg.com, lloydstsb.com, barclays.co.uk, nationwide.co.uk, natwest.com, firstdirect.com, abbeynational.co.uk, nwolb.co.uk, smile.co.uk and barclaycard.co.uk.
About 18 per cent of UK users who access the internet for personal reasons use it for online banking, according to research commissioned in December by online bank Egg.
The findings also showed that 17 per cent of respondents would consider digital TVs for home banking, but that 24 per cent would prefer to use a PC. Only one per cent used a Wap-enabled mobile phone.
First published in Computing
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