UK trails in online banking

Surfers in the UK are not as keen on online banking as their European counterparts, according to a survey released today.

According to Internet research firm, NetValue, four million Brits logged on to financial Web sites in the month of January, compared to 5.4 million in Germany. France and Denmark are also ahead of the UK. Korea, however, is the world leader for Internet banking -- half of its Internet users visited financial sites in January.

French users spend the longest time online -- an average of two hours per month. Again the Brits trail -- spending just 35 minutes per month on financial sites.

Egg proved to be the most popular destination for secure connections, despite the breaches of security it has encountered in the past. Barclays comes in second place, followed by lloydstsb.com.

NetValue says a spate of Net banking security alerts last year, combined with the reluctance of traditional high street banks to set up online businesses in the first instance are to blame for Britain lagging behind. The fact that even the most avid surfers spend only two hours per month doing financial transactions is not seen as a barrier to the growth of such services though -- welcome news for the banks which have invested millions in online and mobile banking services over the last 12 months.

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