Demand for the services has grown dramatically. Bank One reports new customers signing up for online banking increased from 25,000 a month in 2000 to 48,000 a month so far this year. All told, the bank has nearly 20 percent of its checking accounts signed up for online service. Our numbers have doubled every year since 1997 and we expect them to double this year. Comerica reports similar growth, already pulling 7 percent of its consumer customers into Web banking service.
Customers try it and love it.
The objective is to make their services faster and more reliable. Now it's a matter of serving customers the best online. But the price of being on the cutting edge is that not all trends pan out. Case in point for Comerica and Bank One is wireless online banking, through cell phones or personal digital assistant devices. After exploring the options and actually making such services possible, both banks decided not to spend the millions it would take to implement the service.