At the same time, minibank usage is falling while the volume of card transactions is growing strongly. Mobile banking, a new channel for delivering banking services through mobile telephones, attracted a large number of users in 2006 and is growing in popularity. These trends are identified by EDB Business Partner's annual statistics for 2006.

The number of transactions processed through EDB's Internet banking systems rose by 12% in 2006. Minibank usage continued to fall. After a sharp fall of 9% from 2005 to 2006, minibank use fell by a further 1% in 2006. Following its launch in summer 2006, mobile banking has so far been taken up by around 5% of the banking customers offered this new service. The number of transactions carried out by these users is growing strongly.

"These trends are an indicator of what we can expect for the banking customer of the future. Mobile banking and card transactions will become the 'everyday' banking channels. These channels will be used to make transfers between accounts, pay bills, buy goods and services and for similar transactions. We are seeing a change in the character of Internet banking towards being a user-managed portal for the customer's interaction with his or her bank, meeting the need for advisory services and a variety of changing requirements that reflect the customer's personal situation", comments Eva Trasti, EVP Bank & Finance at EDB.

From traditional payments to comprehensive access to the customer's finances

Since the millennium shift, Internet banking has developed from a solution for traditional payment and account services to giving the user comprehensive access to his or her finances. Since the first Internet bank in Norway was launched in 1996, a large proportion of the Norwegian population has moved to using Internet banking as its primary banking channel. EDB currently provides operating services for its bank customers that handle 4 million Internet banking users. The number of Internet banking customers rose by around 7.5% in 2006, while the number of transactions carried out by these customers increased by 12%.

Internet banking traffic is heaviest in the mornings between 08:00 and 12:00 and in the evening between 19:00 and 22:00. Internet banking is used most on Mondays and on the usual days for salary and pension payments, which are the 12th and 20th of each month. The peak period for Internet banking in 2005 was the morning, but this changed in 2006 and the peak time is now around 21:30.

Young women under 30 years of age carry out over 33% more SMS transactions than men in the same age group. On average, mobile users under 30 years of age carry out 14.8 SMS transactions monthly.

The bank of the future

EDB is now working on a new generation of 'event-based' Internet banking, where interaction between the customer and the bank is largely controlled and defined by the customer, with Internet banking offering a broader range of existing and new products than at present. In parallel with the changing character of Internet banking, a number of Norwegian banks launched mobile banking in 2006. The use of mobile telephones for banking delivery represents a step-change in technology and delivery channel that is comparable with the initial launch of Internet banking. Comparing usage patterns for Internet banking when it was first launched in 1996 and the launch of mobile banking in 2006 identifies considerable similarities.

"When EDB launched Internet banking in 1996, we saw that the service was first adopted by pioneering users who rapidly increased their usage as they discovered the functionality and flexibility that the service offered. We are now seeing the same trend 10 years later for mobile banking", explains Eva Trasti.

Strong increase in card use - more than doubled in three years

EDB's statistics show that Norwegians used their bank cards 20% more in 2006 than in 2005. The main factors behind this were greater international use of cards to make smaller payments on holiday or when travelling abroad, and greater use of cards for shopping and making travel bookings over the Internet. The use of cards in person in shops in Norway was broadly in line with 2005. In total, EDB has seen an increase in card transactions processed through its systems in excess of 100% between 2003 and 2006.

Other channels

Usage of traditional telephone banking continues to fall, and the number of transactions carried out through this channel fell by 15% in 2006.

Internet shopping using the 3D Secure system for secure payments showed a 337% increase from 2005 to 2006. Around 731,000 banking customers now use this system for Internet shopping.

EDB's annual statistics

EDB is responsible for IT operations for the major part of Internet banking and minibank traffic in Norway. EDB's statistics relate to traffic handled by EDB's systems, which represents a large proportion of the total number of transactions carried out in Norway annually.