Online banking more popular

Online banking in New Zealand and Australia is taking off, with usage growing at a healthy clip over the latest quarter, according to new statistics.

The number of online bank service users in Australia grew by 496,700 or 7.3 per cent in the December quarter, a study by Market Intelligence Strategy Centre (MISC) has found. That's up from less than 3 per cent growth a year earlier.

The total number of online users climbed to more than seven million in 2004, from 1.3 million in 2000.

In New Zealand, figures from Westpac show 428,889 of its 1.5 million customers were registered to bank online as of April 30 - up more than 15 per cent from 372,508 at the same time last year.

During April, the average number logging on in a business day was 89,124. The busiest day recorded was March 31, at 106,755.

The National Bank reports "steady growth" in online users of about 5 per cent each quarter.

MISC's study cited increased protection, consumer education, promotions and the launch of high interest savings accounts as reasons behind the growth in Australia.

Westpac spokesman Paul Gregory said the bank was surprised at the New Zealand growth, considering recent publicity regarding internet fraud such as key logging - programs secretly installed on computers to record key strokes.

 

Gregory said customers had become more sophisticated and used internet firewalls and anti-virus programs to protect their online activity.

Dual-factor authentication - a constantly changed secondary password used by Westpac for corporate customers - is being considered for the retail sector, he said.

"It's a matter of balancing the cost of the convenience," Gregory said. "We can't make too many security hurdles because we might undermine the convenience proposition, which is the reason why it gets used in the first place."

Gregory said about $160,000 had been fraudulently lost from Westpac customer accounts since 2000, all of which was reimbursed.

"Providing customers haven't been negligent, there isn't any evidence they've participated in the fraud themselves and they can prove they reported it to the police, they will be reimbursed."