2003 Results

During 2003, online banking continued to grow at a rapid clip, adding 5 to 6 million new households, bringing the U.S. total to around 33 million, an 18% increase over 2002. Worldwide totals grew at a faster clip, up an estimated 25% to 30%, or 25 to 30 million households, ending 2003 at more than 130 million.  

Table 3

Consumer Households Using Online Banking: U.S. vs. Worldwide

millions of households actively using online banking and/or online bill payment

Source: Online Banking Report estimates, accuracy estimated at plus or minus 12% U.S., 25% worldwide

Table 4

Annual Growth Rate of U.S. Online Banking Households

millions of U.S. households and percent change from previous year

Source: Online Banking Report estimates, 12/03; accuracy estimated at plus or minus 12%

As the market has matured, we’ve noticed much less variance in the estimates from most major researchers. Most of the differences can be explained by variances in the definition of what constitutes and online banking household. For example, Gartner counts all banking products, including checking/deposit accounts, credit cards, bill payment, and email payments, while Jupiter tracks payment accounts separately . Another major difference: Gartner tracks individual online users while Jupiter, Forrester, and most others track household usage.

At OBR, we track at the household level because it’s consistent with how financial providers usually look at the market. And like Gartner, we use the broadest definition of an online banker (Table 4, below) including deposit-account access, electronic bill payment, credit card access, and biller-direct payments. 

Table 5

OBR Definition: Online Banking Household

Someone in the household must have done at least ONE of the following during the past 6 months:

•        Viewed balance or transaction data online* for a checking account, credit card, or loan/mortgage

•        Authorized a bill payment online at any bank, non-bank, portal, or biller site

•        Transferred funds online using third parties such as PayPal, MSN, or Yahoo

Does not include:

•        Viewing a nonfinancial billing statement online but paying it by paper check, preauthorized debit, or credit/debit card

•        Point-of-sale transactions whether paid by credit card, debit card, electronic check, PayPal, and so on

*Any connection from home, work, school, or other place where data can be viewed through any device (Web phone, browser, proprietary software, Quicken, Money, etc.)

Table 6
OBR Track Record: Accuracy of Prior Forecasts
millions of U.S. households banking online

Source: Online Banking Report, 1998 – 2003
Fore = Forecast; Act = Actual results; Err = Error (difference between forecast and actual)