Online banking has been growing rapidly in Ireland in the past 24 months, according to new figures from the Irish Banking Federation and the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO).
Their latest quarterly report shows that 2.2 million customers were registered for online banking by the end of 2008, up 27.8% on 12 months before.
This is an increase of 46.7% on the first quarter of 2007, when 1.5 million customers were registered.
The report also found that:
- Customers accessed their account balances 123 million times in 2008, up from 92.1 million in 2007, an increase of 33.6%
- They made 30.7 million payments (including mobile phone top-ups and international payments) through online banking services in 2008, up 31.6% on 2007
- Customers accessed their accounts 32.8 million times in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 29.8% on the same period of 2007
“The move to electronic payments is vital in ensuring Ireland’s competitiveness and efficiency within the wider European market and is a key objective of the National Payments Programme which is supported by the Department of Finance”
- Úna Dillon, IPSO’s Head of Card Services and Communications
International comparisons
“We can see from the data compiled to date that online banking is on a significant growth path in Ireland,” says IBF Chief Executive, Pat Farrell.
“Comparative figures for 2007 show that the average user here made 14% more online payments and 20% more online enquiries than his/her UK counterpart.
“However, in a leading online adopter like Norway the average customer made around three times more payments online – indicating that there is considerable scope for further growth.”
More information
The full data series for the IBF/IPSO online personal banking research is available on IBF’s website and IPSO’s website.
