Over 18m Europeans Bank Online, Sweden Leads The Way

The Nielsen report shows that Sweden is the largest market for online banking, with a reach of 51% of those online at home. The UK is ranked fourth after the Netherlands and France, with a 29% reach. In the UK, five million people managed their finances online in October 2002 at home and seven million from both home and work.

Britain’s favourite online bank is internet-only brand egg.com, which attracted over 1.5 million people in October 2002. Traditional high street brands Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and NatWest make up the top five retail banking sites. Nielsen says that the UK is a highly competitive market with five or six banks fighting for audience share, whereas in some other European markets just one or two banks dominate.

“Even though the online banking market is growing in Europe, these figures suggest there is still plenty of room for expansion in some markets,” says Tom Ewing, internet analyst at Nielsen. “Some of Europe’s biggest offline banking markets, including Germany and the UK, still have potential for further development compared to the Netherlands and Sweden.”