The UK's Halifax is to install Internet terminals in its high street branch network. The bank says it will place 600 specially designed 'Click and Call' Access Points in its branches over the next couple of months to provide customers with free Internet and phone access to Halifax Online and Halifax Direct.
The Web stations will feature a PC/keyboard and screen with Internet access to the Halifax's Web sites as well as a phone linked to Halifax Direct. There will also be access to Rightmove, the estate agency Web site which features over 120,000 properties for sale throughout the UK, including over 30,000 from Halifax Property Services.
Those customers who already use the Internet - NOP estimates that around 14.1 million people in the UK have used World Wide Web - will now also be able to look up their account information while visiting their local Halifax branch. The 'Click and Call' Access Points will also operate as a showcase for the bank's Internet services and provide a taste of the Web for customers who do not have a PC in the home.
The initiative is intended to reinforce the bank's remote access capabilities. The Group's telephone operation, Halifax Direct, handles over 33 million calls a year on behalf of 1.5 million current account customers. Halifax Online, launched in October 1999, has attracted over 200,000 customers.