The number of people in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea
doing their banking online grew 63% on-year in the second half of 2001 to
10.6 million users, according to a new survey.

A total of 38% of regular Internet users across the five countries are now
using online banking services, up from 29% a year earlier and 16% two years
earlier, the study by research and marketing information company ACNielsen
shows.

South Korea has by far the largest number of Internet banking users with 5.3
million, followed by China with 2.5 million and Taiwan with 1.7 million.
However, 91% of Internet users in China and 76% in Taiwan are positive
towards banking online, which suggests a large potential for growth,
ACNielsen said.

"With high percentages of Internet users positively disposed towards
Internet banking, and the enormous potential of China and Taiwan, banks in
the region can look forward to large opportunities to grow their Internet
banking customers in the near-term,"ACNielsen senior analyst Richard
Sandlant said in a press release presenting the survey.

While the absolute numbers of customers using online banking services are
smaller in Hong Kong and Singapore, at 600,000 and 400,000 respectively,
these two places join South Korea in having more than 50% of Internet users
banking online.

People in Hong Kong and Singapore are also more active in their use of
Internet banking services. According to the survey, 77% of Internet banking
users in Hong Kong and 74% in Singapore use the services at least once a
month, compared with only half of the users in South Korea.

Around 30% of online banking customers in Hong Kong and 24% in Singapore use
the services at least once a week, compared with 20% in South Korea, 8% in
Taiwan and 3% in China.

"The picture that emerges is that while South Korea is the overall Internet
banking leader, especially in terms of size, Hong Kong and Singapore have
the highest activity levels in the region,"Sandlant said."China and Taiwan
are waiting in the wings, with enormous reserves of untapped potential."

Online Banking Becoming More Popular Than Shopping

The study also shows that customer satisfaction with Internet banking is
high across the region, with only 6% of online banking users in Hong Kong
and 4% in Singapore dissatisfied with the services. The portion of unhappy
customers is slightly higher in South Korea and China, with 8% each, and in
Taiwan with 12%.

According to Sandlant, Internet users are finding banking online"convenient
and timesaving"compared with traditional over-the-counter banking."There are
already more Internet users banking online than there are shopping online in
Singapore and Hong Kong, with South Korea not far behind. We can expect to
see China and Taiwan following the same trends,"he said.

In South Korea, the portion of Internet users who are either already banking
online, or are positive toward doing so in the future, amount to 87%, while
in Singapore and Hong Kong it amounts to 83% and 78% respectively.

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Amra the Freelancer
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