Nordea Bank is to roll out a comprehensive range of online banking services to its customers in Poland.
Customers of Nordea Bank Polska will initially be able to access balance information, review account entries, conduct payment transfers to domestic and international banks and open deposit accounts via the Internet. Account openings will follow shortly.
Nordea's customers in Poland are currently able to access banking services via telephone, with GSM and WAP access planned before the end of the year.
Bo Harald, head of Nordea's electronic banking division, says the bank has attracted 500,000 new users to its Solo e-banking service so far this year. "However, growth has been even greater in the use of the services. By the end of October the number of log-ons exceeded last year's figure by 18 million."
Nordea's electronic banking services are now available in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. These services are soon to be introduced in Lithuania. Nordea currently has about 2.6 million net banking customers and has recorded a 40 per cent increase in net log-ons to 62 million, for the first ten months of the year. The number of payments effected was 72 million, an increase of 42 per cent from last year.
Thomas Neckmar, head of Nordea regional bank Baltic countries and Poland, says: "The huge Polish market, with its five million Internet users, offers great potential for net banking operations."
He estimates that the number of customers using Nordea's electronic banking services will run into tens of thousands by the end of next year.