It is estimated that over 85 per cent of all banking transactions are now done electronically. Since 1994, telephone banking has grown by 50 per cent, PC and Internet banking by 10 per cent and debit cards by 91 per cent annually. According to a recent survey conducted by the CBA over 60 per cent of bank customers do the majority of their banking electronically.
Customers go directly to their bank's home page to access on-line banking services.
This channel provides routine transactions, plus a growing list of credit and investment services - mortgages, car loans, small business loans, mutual funds, securities purchases and more. To access a bank's on-line service, an account holder must use a password and client card number to identify themselves. Information passed between an account holder and their bank is encrypted. This means that complex mathematical algorithms are used to scramble the information into an unreadable format. An unbroken key or padlock indicates that a transaction is secured and that information transmitted is encrypted.