The use of Nordea's Netbank service grew by 21 per cent during the first half of the year, the bank reports, with the number of online account holders exceeding 3.5 million at the end of July.
Scandinavian banking group Nordea says it aims to raise the figure to 3.7 million during the second half of 2003.
Nordea claims that, measured by payment transactions, its Netbank service is the most frequently used in the world. In the first half of the year customers logged on 62.1 million times and made 71 million payments. In June, customers made 12.6 million payments - the biggest number in one month in Nordea's history. The largest increase in the number of payments has been in Norway with 28 per cent, while Sweden has seen a 37 per cent increase in the number of log-ons.
Bo Harald, head, electronic banking, Nordea, says customers currently pay 41 per cent of their invoices through the Netbank service and he believes this figure will increase.
Of the Nordic countries, Nordea has most online account holders in Sweden - almost 1.5 million - followed by Finland with 1.2 million. Denmark has close to 0.5 million customers and in Norway there are 265,000 Nordea customers banking online.