On-line Banking

The introduction of new technologies has radically changed the relationship between the banks and their customers in recent times. It has also allowed for faster development of new products and services. However, there are some key differences and points to watch out for that on-line banking users should know.

On-line banking – what you need to know!

Financial services on-line

Practically all the operations that can be done in a branch office are available by telephone or via the internet.

These include most commonly the following operations:

Open and close a bank account
Operate the bank account: withdraw money, make payments, wire transfers, etc.
Ask for information and/or formalise financing operations and payments related with them
Ask for information and/or formalise investment operations until their maturity and/or anticipated repayment
Manage all investment and financing activities
Ask for a credit/debit card (or withdraw some money from them)
Ask for information/contract all type of insurances
Manage any other banking operations, such as a request for foreign currency, cheque book, change of contact information, change of password.

The financial institutions increasingly aggregate services, so that through their web page it is possible to make other electronic commerce operations, such as purchases of tickets for shows, mobile phone recharge etc..

There are two types of banks:

Banks offering services on-line, but which also have physical branches
Banks that offer their services exclusively on-line, which do not have branches.

What are the key features of good on-line banking?

No physical presence of the customer in the office is necessary to do any kind of operation; all done through the web page or by e-mail (or, at least, by telephone or ordinary mail). Thus, the client of an on-line bank should not have to consider how near (or far away) the branch office is located
Information and the cost of the services rendered is readily available. On-line banking should be cost effective for the customer as well as the bank
The customer needs a good service for answering questions and queries. A Frequently Answered Questions (FQA’s) section is very useful
Access to internet service must be user-friendly for all customers. It should not be necessary to understand the technology. In addition, customers who do not have broadband should be considered - web pages must be downloaded quickly
All the procedures must be easy to execute, always accompanied by clear information. For example, the user must know the commission/fee charged for any operation and have the option to verify and to rectify the information before making it definitively
The security of the service is essential. The management, transactions and requests for information must be made in a safe page
The customer must be sure the bank really exists: it must be approved by the national regulatory body
You can open a bank account in any country of EU and make bank transfers to or from that account. However, you have to take into account that the requirements to open and manage the bank account could vary from one country to another. The EU has adopted some common rules, the practical effect of which is that a cross-border payment in euro is subject to the same charges as the corresponding national payment in euro.
In the event that a customer has problems with a foreign bank, there should be help available from an existing national complaint schemes for financial services, joined together in a cooperation network: the cross-border out-of-court complaints network for financial services (FIN-NET).

Main recommendations for on-line bank users

Read the contracts very carefully before signing them
Keep the password and internet codes in a safe place
- Passwords normally allow customers to access to the information, but not to operate
- Codes (passwords as well in some banks) allow customers to operate on-line banking
- As soon as the password and codes are received by the customer, they should be changed to ones which are easier to remember. Do not misunderstand this: it should be easy for the user to remember but difficult for someone else to guess. So do not use birth date, car license, etc.
When you finish using the on-line bank web page, you should always use the option to disconnect immediately
If you surf from a public service, make sure that nobody can observe when you enter the password and/or code in the web page of the bank
If you use a shared computer, make sure that the option for “remembering password” in the browser is switched off when you enter the on-line bank
Never introduce any personal or security (key) data in surroundings that clearly are not identified as secure. Make sure that the address of the web page (URL) which appears in the navigation bar begins with “http”; and that in the bar of the browser a closed padlock appears
Never provide passwords/keys/codes to another person (even employees of the bank). Multiple frauds (called phishing) have been detected to steal data and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish from a real banking communication. The most frequently used anti-virus includes a phishing option, which should be activated, in order to reduce this risk.

These recommendations are very important. They is a lot of fraud in the network, and the risks are high if you are not careful – your money, credit, debt and/or reputation is at stake.