The number of Nordea customers who use Internet services has now passed 4 million.
This year 400,000 new customers have signed up, an increase of 11 per cent. The most rapid increase is taking place in Poland, where the number of Internet customers almost doubled during 2004. Nordea is today the world's biggest Internet bank measured by payments.
The Group now has 4 million Internet customers in eight countries in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region. Usage is expanding strongly: the number of logons on a yearly basis has increased from 130 million to 165 million, or 27 per cent. The number of payment transactions increased during the same period from 146 million to 171 million, or 17 per cent.
- Extensive net banking underpins the next stage: e-services for companies. Companies can switch to e-business services when they know that the bank's personal customers are accustomed to using Internet services, and have confidence in them, says Bo Harald, Head of Electronic Banking in Nordea.
Record number of e-business agreements - 10,000 new customers
The 10,000th e-business customer signed up for e-invoicing in December - the fastest growing form of e-business-services among companies. The majority of customers have subscribed to the e-invoice service, but other services such as e-payments, e-identification/e-signatures and e-salary have also started to expand.
- This is only the beginning. E-business-services are cost-effective and very secure, and we expect significantly higher figures going forward, says Bo Harald.
Strong growth in Poland and the Baltic countries
The fastest increase is taking place in Poland, where Nordea's Internet customer number 4,000,000 signed up, the architectural firm Des Art Architectural Consulting and Design in Gdynia. Nordea commenced operations in Poland in 1999, and Internet services were introduced in 2001. Interest has grown since then, and 2004 has been a record year: from 18,000 new users to 32,000.