Overview

Irish bank customers have been slow to adopt online banking services.  Whether the fault lies with the banks or with the customers is a debatable point.  In my opinion both are at fault but the balance of fault lies with the banks.

Online banking services are undoubtedly cheaper to operate than traditional services from the point of view of the bank, particularly if they can build up volume.  But in the view of this author, the most expensive option for a bank is the situation of a mix of traditional and online services.  One might therefore expect that the banks might inject some urgency into the switch to online and electronic services.  And you might expect that this would lead to the provision of online services which are so well presented that there is no contest. And customers might flock to them.

Online banking services are widely used to look up current balances on accounts - both by the personal sector and by the business sector.  But for the business sector, the cheque is the predominant method of paying invoices.  And relatively few personal payments are originated online.

So what do I want in my online system?

I want the simplicity of Paypal, with the fullest security.  With the minimum of difficulty, I want to be able to issue invoices online, and without further inputting, I want to be able to have invoices presented to me, and to have the capability to pay or reject those invoices.  As a micro-business, I want to be able to do this without any expensive software development, but the system should also be capable of being linked to fully integrated financial packages.  It should be standardised across banks.

As a personal user of online, I want a system which is stand alone - it should not require further support by phone if I want to set up a new payee.  I appreciate that some banks have such facility - mine does not.  And I want to be able to make payments abroad.

Following are links to the online services of the various retail banks:-