With an average balance retrieval time almost twice as fast as its nearest rival, Lloyds TSB's online current account is leading the UK banking industry for speed of customer access, according to the latest research by the International Institute of Banking and Financial Services (IIBFS) at Leeds University.
The IIBFS' January 2002 Web Site Performance Benchmarking survey was conducted to provide an indication of the quality, in terms of speed of service, consumers can expect from their bank.
The research measured the end-to-end time taken to obtain a balance on an online current account using the shortest possible path - ie. download homepage to account logout - for twelve online current account provideres. Over 2000 samples were taken over the period using a single PC whose specification remained unchanged throughout the period.
The performance of the surveyed companies was:
1. Lloyds TSB (29 secs)
2. First Direct (54 secs)
3. Co-Operative (59 secs)
4. HSBC (61 secs)
5. Nationwide BS (89 secs)
6. Halifax (101 secs)
7. Cahoot (122 secs)
8. Woolwich (126 secs)
9. Royal Bank of Scotland (140 secs)
10. Nat West (144 secs)
11. Barclays (211 secs)
12. Abbey National (287 secs).
Professor Kevin Keasey, director at the IIBFS, says: “Given the relatively simple nature of the transaction, the variation in performance is quite startling."