The number of consumers banking online continues to rise as Britons increasingly adopt interactive technologies such as Internet, digital TV and WAP mobile phones, according to the latest Mori report on behalf of Internet bank Egg.
Results of the latest Egg/Mori "Embracing Technology" report show approximately 6.6 million Britons now bank online, an increase of 1.1 million since the last index in October 2001.
These figures correlate strongly with the rate of adoption by British adults of interactive technologies, such as Internet, digital TV and WAP mobile phones. Between October 2001 and February 2002, the Egg Index recorded an increase of around two million UK consumers using these technologies for personal use, up to 27 million in total.
Internet usage alone now stands at 45% amongst British adults or around 20 million, up from 42% in October. A further one in ten envisage accessing it within the next two years. Currently, half of Internet users say they have arranged or serviced a financial product over the Web.
A third of all adults say they would be interested in making payments to individuals or pay bills to businesses using email, as a faster and more efficient alternative to posting cheques. The figure grows to half among email users.
Similarly, over a third of all adults (37%) say they would be interested in using account aggregation services in the next two years - where they could view and access all financial products using a single Internet site and one log-in. This figure rises to 75% amongst those who currently use online banking services.
Egg is currrently hatching plans to offer a person-to-person payment service to the UK's Hotmail users. The direct bank has also said it will offer account aggregation to customers "in the very near future".
Patrick Muir, marketing director, Egg UK comments: “We have announced our intention to offer additional digital payments and account aggregation solutions because we know our customers want the control of being able to manage their money whenever they want”.