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.