Norwegians are using Internet banking more than ever before, and over the last three years Internet banking usage has more than doubled, reports EDB Business Partner’s annual statistics for 2008.
The number of invoices paid through Internet banks increased by 12% in 2008, and the number of Internet banking account holders with Norwegian banks passed the 4 million milestone. This means that virtually every adult in Norway now uses Internet banking to pay accounts and manage his or her personal finances.
Today, people pay their bills almost exclusively from their Internet bank accounts, and Internet banking has become the main channel for contact between banks and their customers.
Internet banking trends in 2008
The number of invoices paid through Internet banking increased by 12% in 2008, and the average Internet banking customer used the service to pay 61 bills over the course of the year.
The number of customers holding Internet banking account agreements with Norwegian banks increased by 8%, and EDB estimates that at the start of 2009 there were around 4.2 million Internet banking accounts in use in Norway. If growth continues at this pace, the number of accounts will overtake the size of the Norwegian population sometime in 2009.
“We see that people are becoming ever more professional in their use of Internet banking, and we expect to see Internet banking develop over the next few years in pace with users’ needs and expectations to become a complete control panel and administrative tool for Norwegians to manage their private finances,” says Helge Moan, director for Solutions and Services, Bank & Finance, EDB. “In many ways, banking customers are becoming their own bank managers.”
L.D.