Barclays has revamped its online banking service to improve
its look and feel. It plans to add new tools such as
calculators.
Sean Gilchrist, digital banking director at Barclays, said,
"This is the first in a programme of change over the next 12 months
which will also see us introducing some new tools and features for
customers and implementing a new design for the Barclays.co.uk
website."
Barclays, which has run online banking service for 10 years, has
more than three million online customers, with about one million
using its site every day.
With a third of the UK population banking online, websites have
become a differentiator for customers choosing a bank. There were
21.5 million online bank users in the UK in 2008, up from 7.9
million in 2000, according to UK Payments, formerly Apacs.
Barclays offers security software from Kaspersky to
protect its online banking customers for free.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest are
also offering all of their customers a free download to secure
their online banking activity.
UK Payments said people have moved beyond just using online
banking to check accounts. "Banks are competitive businesses and
will look at what they can do to add bells and whistles," said a
spokesperson.
UK payments said the number of people using telephone banking
has been in decline since 2005, when it peaked at 16.1 million
adults, as people switch to online banking. Last year 12.3 million
adults used telephone banking.
Number of UK citizens banking online
(source: UK Payments)
- 2002: 7.9 million
- 2003: 12.8 million
- 2004: 14.8 million
- 2005: 15.7 million
- 2006: 17.2 million
- 2007: 21 million
- 2008: 21.5 million