One Year Ago in Online Banking Report

In May 2000, we published our fourth annual “Online Banking by the Numbers” report (which we’ll be updating this summer). At that time, there was still a lot of talk about traffic, brand-building and new business models.

One of the highest flyers, OnMoney, the financial portal owned by AmeriTrade, was drawing nearly 2 million unique visitors per month thanks to a flashy advertising campaign that included among other things, giveaways of Range Rovers stuffed full with cash. But we sounded a warning, noting that “only 220,000 (visitors) had stayed long enough to register.” Today, OnMoney is drawing about 150,000 users per month (see Table 1), but they are an involved user base, using OnMoney’s Web for more than 20 minutes each month on average.

                        OBR May 2000

Six Years Ago in Online Banking Report

Six years ago, there was much concern about Microsoft entering the financial services arena. In our inaugural issue, we ran a front-page editorial debunking that notion, “No single entity, be it a bank or non-bank, has the slightest chance of capturing a significant share of the total U.S. (financial services) pie in the next 10 years.” We are now 6 years into that 10-year look, and so far there have been no significant market share shifts in retail banking (online investing is another matter).

                        OBR April 1995

A month later, we ran a list of the only four Web sites in the world with online credit card applications, Capital One, First Union, Naval Air FCU, and Chevy Chase. Two other credit card issuers had Web sites, but no application, Barclaycard and Norwest. Today there are more than 3,000 banks and credit unions in the U.S. alone with online credit applications.

                        OBR May 1995