Moving from in line to online

Ziniades says it is little wonder, then, that 40% of the respondents to the survey said they were willing to use self-service kiosks or other self-service devices to reduce time wasted while waiting for customer care. More than 40% chose one supplier over another because it offered self-service options.

According to him, another survey released by Jupiter Research in 2006 found that 90% of US customers who contacted customer service over a six-month period used online self-service at least once.

“Research conducted by World Wide Worx, on behalf of Consology, shows self-service is also on the rise locally, as customers demand a better level of service from their service providers, and as businesses try to contain climbing customer service costs while differentiating themselves from the competition.”

The POLi online bank payment platform aims to increase payment choice while reducing card-not-present fraud

The technology behind POLi was developed by Australian firm Centricom Pty. According to merchants in Australia using POLi, the service now accounts for an average of 23 per cent of their total online payment transactions.

Centricom teamed up with UK-based online payment firm Neteller last August to launch a joint venture to roll out POLi in Europe, starting with its launch in the UK last week. The service, distributed through Neteller’s payment processing arm Netbanx, supports transfers from all major UK high street banks.

Small banks are finding a way to stay ahead with online banking.

As the numbers of online users increase so do consumer requirements. In fact, according to CashEdge's second annual Consumer Online Banking Survey, which was released late last year, 85 percent of respondents would never bank with an institution that didn't offer online banking. Now, smaller community banks are finding that their online banking services are a way to keep customers.

"With all the new technology and our busier lifestyles as consumers, banks have to rely on technology to stay connected with their customers," said Chuck Carr, product line manager for Checkfree.com, a provider of financial electronic commerce services and products.

While smaller community banks are unable to compete with large institutions in terms of geographic convenience, in a virtual world a smaller bank is just as viable as a larger one.

Internet banking less risky than driving a car

A recent Nielsen survey showed that 46 per cent of people were concerned or very concerned about internet banking security.

On the one hand, that is good. People should always have a close interest in how their money is being looked after. What worries me is that reporting of such figures without background or context feeds a misconception. The reality is that internet banking is incredibly safe.

Westpac facilitates millions of online banking transactions a month. We have no recorded breaches of our internal security systems. It is not uncommon for us to have whole months where no customers fall victim to online fraud.

Internet Banking safe and speedy

Technology has altered our lives and habits significantly, enabling efficiencies and facilities like never before. We book air and train tickets on the Internet and have long stopped standing in queues and depending on booking agents.

We browse through our telephone bills to skim call durations for any misuse. We buy and sell equity shares on our online trading accounts, in a matter of minutes, while being tuned to the market and prices from wherever we are.

We search our mail history from email folders and snigger at someone who prints emails. We cannot remember the last time we sent a snail mail.

However, when it comes to our money, are we using Internet Banking for all the efficiencies it enables?

Online Banking Grows, But Security Concerns Continue to Accrue

This all doesn’t mean that online banking isn’t safe if done correctly — both by the institution and the customer. The writer points out that online banking is growing. Both the perception and the reality is that safety is improving and, for this reason, crackers are beginning to target smaller and less sophisticated institutions. Indeed, it’s possible to argue that online banking is safer than physical banking. The lion’s share of financial fraud is done in the real world and, even if online theft is attempted, alerts are sounded quicker and loss is less than off-line theft.