Report on the internet economy In focus: The financial sector III. 2001 GKIeNET-Webigen Financial Service Providers’ Internet Usage Index
2002. 11. 17.
The GKIeNET-Webigen Financial Service Providers’ Internet Usage Index is the simple mathematical average of the above subindexes. In the second quarter of 2001 the GKIeNET-Webigen Financial Service Providers’ Internet Usage Index was at 31.5, reflecting a 4.6 point increase from the previous quarter’ s figure of 26.9.
Online banking customers
Currently six banks are offering online checking account services, and one bank sells securities over the internet. Banks offering checking account services had approximately 80 thousand personal and 14 thousand corporate online customers on March 31, 2001. This reflects a 25% rise in the number of household customers and a 12% increase in the number of corporate clients.
For the six banks, the average percentage of online customers in the household market exceeded 4%, while in the corporate segment the ratio remained approximately 2.8% on average at the end of Q1 2001.
Banks anticipate that the number of personal and corporate customers alike will increase over the next twelve months, but their expectations have diminished significantly since the previous survey.
Online sales by insurance companies
Insurance companies project that online sales will account for 0.2-1% of their total sales in 2001, which will rise to 1-5% in 2002.
Insurance companies also believe that online sales will expand faster in the household segment than in the corporate market. They consider the online sales of non-life insurance products more promising in both client groups. The expected net growth figures are as follows:
Online customers of securities firms
The five responding securities firms offering online services had 7,500 personal online customers at the end of the first quarter of 2001. Combined with non-responding securities companies, the number of online brokerage customers could total approximately 10-11 thousand in Hungary.
