Finance customers 'open to internet communications'

15th April 2008

Financial services customers are open to next-generation telecoms services, according to a new report.

Analysis from comScore discovered that 23 per cent of people would welcome a social networking application that informed them of their account balance, while 25 per cent would be willing to discuss their finances online with a bank representative.

Brian Jurutka, vice-president of the digital world analyst, claimed that adoption of such services remained low, despite open consumer attitudes to online customer service.

"This may be due to the fact that many banks have not yet developed capabilities to adequately match consumer expectations, which provides additional opportunities for banks to satisfy their customers," he said.

Growth in the number of customers of the top ten web banks was 8.1 per cent last year compared to 9.5 per cent in 2006, the report discovered.

Its release followed that of a report by Family Investments, which showed that two-thirds of women cited the internet as their favoured medium for financial management.