According to the
Bank of Ireland, the number
of small businesses using its Business Online service doubled in the past 12
months. During 2004, Bank of Ireland said that around 5 million instructions
and 35 million transactions were carried out by the bank's 70,000 registered
business users.
The increasingly availability of broadband is one of the factors highlighted
by Bank of Ireland as being responsible for the surge in online banking
customers.
As the roll-out of broadband continues Ken Slattery, executive director
of Bank of Ireland's Business Online, believes that high speed access will
encourage even more businesses to conduct their banking transactions online.
"We already have 80 percent of our larger customers doing their banking
requirements online and now Small - Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are starting
to follow suit. 2005 is expected to be the year of a significant move to
online banking," said Slattery.
The government recently outlined a new national e-business strategy which
focuses on encouraging Small - Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to increase their
usage of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).
The publication of the strategy followed a survey conducted by the
Department of Enterprise, Trade and
Employment which highlighted the need for more sophisticated use of ICTs,
particularly in the non-ICT producing sectors. Increasing their use of
technology and the internet will enable SMEs to reduce costs, the government
has argued.
The survey by the Department of Enterprise found that 65 percent of Irish
businesses conduct banking online. Despite this high penetration of online
banking, Slattery said that a high volume of cheques are still being written
by Irish SMEs. "Although the level has been dropping, there has not been the
dramatic decrease that other European countries have experienced," said
Slattery.
Bank of Ireland is keen to further increase the number of businesses using
its Business Online service saying that conducting banking transactions
online can help small companies to reduce costs. In fact, the bank claims
that conducting banking online can save small companies up to 76 percent on
routine branch transactions.
In a bid to encourage its business customers to make the move online the
bank says that customers of the Business Online service who sign up for Esat
BT broadband services will receive a series of reductions on their broadband
costs.
The partners have been offering reduced rates for the past 12 months, and
are soon to announce further reductions. Those Bank of Ireland Business
Online customers connecting at speeds of 512Kbps receive free installation
and EUR7 reduction on monthly charges while 1Mbps customers qualify for a
EUR10 reduction on monthly charges.
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