Europeans Confident in Using the Internet for Online Banking

Europeans Confident in Using the Internet for Online Banking More than one third of Europeans visited business and finance sites from home in November 2000, especially sites of traditional and online banks, according to latest figures from Internet research company MMXI. Europeans use the Internet to find financial advice, online share trading, insurances and online banking. In Denmark 41.3% of the Internet population, visited Finance sites during November 2000. This is the highest proportion of people visiting these sites from home during November. In Germany, France and the UK the reach of finance sites was 34.2%, 33.8% and 31.7%. [REMOVED GRAPHICS] Source: MMXI at home panels in Denmark, Germany, France and the UK, November 2000. In Denmark five of the eight finance sites showing up in the MMXI report in November are banks. Traditional banks are in top; Danskebank.dk had 225 000 Unique Visitors and Bgbank.dk had 118 000 Unique Visitors during the month. Four of the top ten finance sites in Germany are those of stockbrokers but the websites of two traditional banks, Deutschebank24.de and Postbank.de, achieved positions four and five. In France banks are popular destinations, too. Six banks made it into the top ten finance sites, together with sites offering insurance and/or financial information.In the UK the ten most popular finance sites are those of banks, including mainly traditional ones, such as Barclays, Lloyds TSB, Abbey National, Natwest and Nationwide. Sites in the Banking and Finance category attract users for a longer time than other categories such as Entertainment, Retail or News/Information in Europe. The heaviest users in time spent in Europe are the Germans with 83.3 average minutes per Unique Visitor (almost one and a half hours), followed by the Danes who spent about one hour (54.9 average minutes per Unique Visitors) on finance sites in November 2000. [REMOVED GRAPHICS] Source: MMXI at home panels in Germany, Denmark, France and the UK , November 2000. The MMXI at home and at work panels in Sweden show that finance sites are also frequently accessed from work. In November 2000, 59.1% of the Internet population at home and at work visited finance sites in Sweden. Five of the sites were banks. On average each Unique Visitor spent 61.9 minutes on these sites. "The popularity of finance sites and online banking shows that Europeans acknowledge the practical and time saving benefits of the Internet. Most banks recognise that they can offer additional value by giving their customers access to their accounts via the Internet", said Arielle Dinard, President of MMXI. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/01/11/20010111BIT00600/bit0001.doc The full message http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/01/11/20010111BIT00600/bit0002.pdf The full message