UK consumers are ramping up their use of online financial services - and becoming more receptive to new interactive technologies, including digital payments, biometrics and account aggregation services - according to a report prepared by pollsters Mori on behalf of Internet bank Egg.
Mori, which interviewed just under 2000 consumers for its survey, estimates that approximately 5.5 million Britons now bank online, a six-month increase of 37.5%, since the last Egg index was conducted.
Nearly half of all Internet users (46%) say they have either bought or serviced a financial product over the Web. The three most popular of these are insurance, credit cards and savings accounts. Motor tops the insurance stakes with approximately two million having taken out an online car insurance policy to date. The Egg report finds 53% of Internet users say they would consider arranging financial products online in the next two years.
The report has also identified a high level of interest and anticipation in new technologies which are not yet widely available on the UK market. Thirty-six per cent of adults are interested in using account aggregation technology to access and view all their financial products on a single Internet site. Thirty-seven per cent say they would use a single Web site which enables them to choose and compare between financial products from a range of suppliers.
Similarly, over a quarter of Britons (27%) would swap their wallets for digital payment solutions which would involve biometric identification such as iris or fingerprint recognition.
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