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Banking
For some time now most of the transactions between banks in the
payments system have been undertaken electronically.
Banking systems have also progressively automated deposit taking and
payments. Key developments have included the now widespread
acceptance and utilisation of ATMs and EFTPOS.
Use of Internet banking is also growing rapidly. Of the 1.7 million
Australians using the Internet regularly (more than once a week), nearly
150 000 are involved in Internet banking. This is a threefold increase
from a year ago. Internet consultancy www.consult projects that there will
be about 270 000 Internet banking users by the beginning of 2 000.
Most (nearly 90 per cent) users are expected to extend their existing
banking relationships. 4
According to www.consult, while the four big domestic banks have
Internet-banking offerings, the Commonwealth Bank is the largest.
Forty five per cent of regular Internet banking users bank online with the
Commonwealth Bank and nearly 30 per cent with Westpac. National
Australia Bank is Australia’s biggest banker to small business.
Users of NAB Internet Banking, are reported to have increased from
8 000 to 26 000 in two months and are signing up at twice the rate of
personal customers. 5
The key attributes that the commercial banks offer in their Internet
banking facilities typically include:
• review transaction details;
• transfer funds between accounts;
• pay bills (typically using BPAY);
• transaction records and account statements;
• buying or selling of funds that can be used in other e-commerce sites
(e.g. the ecash system supported by St George);
• communicate securely with the bank;
• standard fees, or sometimes, lower banking fees per transaction; and
• customer convenience in terms of 24 hours a day, seven days a week
service, without queues and from the comfort of one’s home or office.
The National Australia Bank includes a ‘pay anyone’ feature in its Internet
service which enables customers to transfer funds to accounts at other
banks, a function that is not widely available on Internet based systems
in Australia.
Statistics from the US give an indication of why people use Internet
banking and why they do not.
4 Margaret Banaghan ‘Inside Story – Part two: Cyber retail case studies’, Business Review Weekly Vol. 21,
No. 29.
5 Gayle Bryant, ‘Online banking: Small business joins the rush’, Business Review Weekly Vol. 21 No. 28.
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