Let the thing over-run by three years 6. Bring back part of the team that failed in the first instance. Putting the existing business online is not enough. The report issued on Monday 5th June forecasts the number of Europeans banking on the internet will rise from 20m this year to 55m by 2003. It expects the highest penetration to be in Sweden with 50 per cent of bank customers online, followed by Switzerland with 36 per cent and Germany with 25 per cent.
Customers are now more astute and use the Net to research and compare mortgages and pensions.
Banks with an eye to lower costs and growth target this growth area, again cutting out traditional players. The pressure to cut costs to maintain profitability will be intense, especially for those most at risk from new competitors, which include the UK mortgage banks. The report suggests that traditional banks need to emphasise their trusted brands, and better exploit their data about customers and branches. In this way they can improve their chances of Net success whilst seeking to drive out costs from monolithic organisation structures. Internet time' is seconds and minutes, not weeks and months.