Online Banking Continues to Disappoint

This means that, for many financial institutions, online banking has not lived up to its promise. According to eMarketer's U.S. eBanking Report, the Internet is not the only technology that has fallen short of its promise for banks. Other technologies such as electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), account aggregation and customer relationship management (CRM) technologies have also come up short -- so far. Despite the warnings, eMarketer still predicts that the number of consumer households banking online will grow from 12.2 million by year-end 2001 to 18.3 million by 2004. Much of the disappointment surrounding online banking is due to ambitious forecasts that predicts consumers would bank from home when given the opportunity, all but eliminating the need for bank branches. But consumer surveys show otherwise. Some 69 to 78 percent of bank customers, including those who also bank online, use bank branches about the same or more often than they did last year. A study by Gomez, Inc. is more ambitious in its estimation of online banking's popularity. It found there are already 13.6 million of what it calls "Active Web Bankers" in the United States, up from 6.1 million at year-end 1999. Another 16.3 million prospective Active Web Bankers are poised to fuel further growth in consumer adoption. Gomez says these customers are shopping for financial products online, prefer the Internet to other channels for routine customer care and are interested in some, but not all, of the online services that banks are rolling out.