Banking Web sites attracted more than five million home Internet users in July, up from 3.8 million in January, according to the latest figures from Internet monitoring company NetValue. The UK has more visitors to banking sites (5,200,000) than any other of the eight main European countries surveyed.
Women have been a major part of the increase, says NetValue, making up more than half (53 per cent) of new users of online banking this year. Figures for women banking online are up more than 60 per cent since January.
The average duration spent on a banking site across the month has reduced from 28.1 minutes to 22.3.
NetValue's Alki Manias says the results show UK Internet users are comfortable with banking online: "Users are also spending less time online, suggesting they know their way round the sites, and what they want to do there."
Lloyds TSB had most users going to a part of their site with a secure connection – the part in which transactions take place. Of visitors to lloydstsb.com, 64 per cent made a secure connection.
Elsewhere in Europe, online banking continues to be popular. The French online banking audience has increased by a third this year, and Scandinavian countries are keen users of these services. In Sweden, more than half (54.1 per cent) of Internet users use banking sites. Norway (48.1 per cent) and Denmark (44) have the next largest proportions of online banking users amongst their online populations.
Germany is the exception, where online banking has decreased since January. And Italians buck the trend of spending less time online – Italian users of online banking services spend 42.3 minutes online per month, almost double the UK figure.