...and some bad press, but it gets back to the issue of quality that we were discussing earlier, some good info in any case....
on-line banking/ bank of america ranked no. 1 in net banking
June 25, 1998
American Banker:
Bank of America's electronic bill payment capabilities helped it
snag top honors in a recent ranking of Internet banking
services.
Unlike the majority of banks that offer electronic bill
payment, Bank of America performs its own processing,
rather than rely on a third party, such as Checkfree Corp.
Bank of America officials said its in-house capability
helped it score highly in customer confidence, one of
five dimensions rated by Gomez Advisors, Concord,
Mass.
Michael DeVico, executive vice president of Bank of
America's interactive banking division, said, "Our error
rate in bill pay is very low, and we provide excellent
customer service."
This high accuracy rate helped boost the bank's overall
score to 6.54 out of 10, ranking it highest of the 97 banks
surveyed. Bank of America was followed by Security
First Network Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Salem Five Cents
Bank, and Bank of Hawaii.
Of the top five banks, Bank of Hawaii earned the highest
score in terms of ease of use, while Salem Five Cents
earned the best marks for being low- cost. The two
remaining factors that Gomez analyzed-in which all the
top five banks scored moderately-were the richness of
on-site resources and relationship services.
Salem Five Cents earned a near-perfect score in the cost
category, by not charging monthly or start-up fees.
"The cost of entry is low to allow people to test the
product," said William H. Mitchelson, chairman and
chief executive officer. "It's a pay-as-you-go service,
and we only charge for excessive activity."
By keeping its overhead costs for Internet banking low,
the bank says, its no-fee strategy is working. Of the
5,000 users of Salem Five Cents' Virtual Branch, nearly
100% are new customers. "We're a $1 billion-asset
institution with a $60 million virtual branch," said Mr.
Mitchelson.
Three employees support the Internet banking solution,
which is powered by software from Security First
Technologies run on a service bureau basis through
M&I Data Services. Travelers Express handles bill
payment processing.
Many of the largest banks in the country were not
eligible to be in the survey, which required participants
to offer bill payment, account look- ups, and account
transfers on the Web, without using personal financial
management or proprietary dial-up software.
Banks that did not qualify included: Chase Manhattan
Bank, BankBoston, Bank of New York, CoreStates,
Crestar, First Chicago, First Union, Fleet, KeyCorp,
NationsBank, Norwest, PNC, and SunTrust.
First Union, for example, "shows promise on the
Internet, but bill payment is still only available to former
customers of Signet," said the Gomez report. Numerous
other big banks, including Fleet, Norwest, PNC, and
First Chicago NBD, still rely on personal financial
management software to give customers access to their
accounts on-line.
The weak showing among large banks allowed mid-tier
and smaller banks to jump into leadership positions.
Many of these banks have turned to Internet software
providers-such as Security First Technologies of
Atlanta, Jack Henry & Associates of Monett, Mo.,
nFront Inc. of Bogart, Ga., and Edify Corp. of Santa
Clara, Calif.-to support their Internet offerings. Three of
the top-five ranked banks use Security First
Technologies' S1 software.
"The Internet banking arena has a heavy vendor flavor,"
said Chris Musto, senior consultant at Gomez Advisors.
"The majority of solutions involve substantial software
assistance." Copyright c 1998 American Banker, Inc. All
Rights Reserved. americanbanker.com
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