e-banking: The check is in the email

Vermont Business Magazine, Feb 01, 2005 by Kelley, Kevin

Consideration is also being given to how to safeguard the accounts of customers whose units are lost or stolen. The FDIC is also encouraging banks around the country to strengthen educational programs intended to help keep customers safe from online scams such as phishing. That's something Merchants, Chittenden and other Vermont banks already emphasize, according to their officers.

"It's true that people are becoming more comfortable, but at the same time banks are trying to coach them to be more careful on the Internet," says Chittenden's McGuire.

"Most people think they're more secure than they really are."

For Everbank, which lacks the reassurance of a physical presence, the perceived integrity of its brand name is allimportant. Familiarity breeds confidence, Forreger suggests.

"As our own brand recognition grows, security probably becomes less of an issue," he says. As long as security specialists remain at least a few steps ahead of online fraudsters, Internet banking will likely to continue its rapid expansion in Vermont and elsewhere.

Political factors, however, may eventually pose obstacles, especially in a liberal state like Vermont. Because electronic banking can be serviced from anywhere in the world - including low labor-cost countries such as India - growth rates might be slowed by opposition to the outsourcing of jobs now performed by clerks and tellers in Burlington, Bennington, Brattleboro and Barre.