World's best Internet banks

Global Finance, Aug 2000 by Rombel, Adam

BARCLAYS GROUP

WEB SITES: wvA%business.barclays.not

www.ibank.barclays.co.uk

WEB DATA: 100,000 small business customers banking online.

Barclays' 700,000 customers that are online, 100,000 are small businesses. Among new small business customers, 33% also are signing up online. The UK's biggest Internet bank, Barclays has recently established a portal with Freeserve in a 40/60 partnership aimed at Barclays' 450,000 small business customers and the 300,000 small businesses that use Freeserve.John Varley, chief executive of Barclays' retail financial services, says the two firms will invest 10 million pounds each in the new service in its first year.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of the Barclays Group, recently launched its new Internetbased foreign exchange dealing system, which enables institutional and large corporate clients to deal quickly, safely and easily in the multi-trillion-dollar foreign exchange market. Other corporate online services provided by Barclays Capital include CB Webinfo, which allows investors to view online research on convertible bonds, market commentary, prices, and prospectuses.

DEUTSCHE BANK

WEB SITE: www.deutsche-bank.com

Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank said it planned to change its business strategy to focus on the Internet.

The bank is transforming itself into a provider of financial advice, risk management and standard money payment services to private and corporate customers around the world. Managing director Rolf-Ernst Breuer said in February that the bank would invest El billion annually to this end over the next few years. Since June, Deutsche Bank has been able to offer its private and corporate customers a complete online money trading system as a further product of the bank's e-commerce service, db-Markets.

SVENSKA HANDELSBANKEN

WEB SITE: www.handelsbanken.se

WEB DATA: Between 25% and 30% of corporate customers are banking online actively.

Trued Holmquist, senior vice president and head of Internet and mobile banking, says 25% to 30% of Svenska's corporate clients are now active online. "Today we have the highest penetration in the Nordic markets both on the retail and private side," he says. In the fall, the bank is launching a new product, Betalpanel (payments panel), to simplify payments over the Internet. Using Betalpanel, companies that want to charge for their products via the Internet can link up to all the bank's payment solutions, and the selling company can choose the payment method that its customers will use.

Asia/Pacific

Asian banks have been slower than their counterparts in Europe and North America in developing Internet strategies and services, analysts say. Regulatory barriers and low Internet and personal computer penetration rates are partly to blame. For example, only about 10% of Asian households outside China have a PC, according to Merrill Lynch.The region's diversity of languages and cultures, and its disparities of wealth, technological capabilities and business practices, make region-wide introduction of Internet services difficult, say analysts and e-consultants.