Online, or over the line

Photo / Dean Purcell

For a banking advert, it reads like a Tui billboard.

"1969: We're the first bank to introduce real-time online banking," an ASB Bank campaign claims. Yeah, right, some say.

For the ASB Bank, it is an attempt to recognise its history in introducing technology to its branches in 1969. The bank became the first in the Southern Hemisphere to link a few branches to a mainframe at its headquarters.

Technology writer Peter Griffin, an ASB Bank customer, said "modern consumers" would expect "online banking to mean the personal banking available over the internet. I think it's a real stretch."

An ASB Bank spokeswoman said the description in the advert reflected the use of the term last century.

"Arguably, the use of the term 'online' has taken on a new meaning this century and is now often used to refer to internet banking, although this was not the case back in 1969."