Small German bank claims first with online service

["Joseph M. Reagle Jr." <reagle@rpcp.mit.edu>]

>	 FRANKFURT, Aug 28 (Reuter) - German private bank Gries &  
>Heissel Bankiers on Wednesday launched an Internet banking 
>service -- the first comprehensive service of its kind in a 
>country where online bank options are gradually taking off. 
>	 The small Berlin-based bank linked up with U.S. computer  
>firm Hewlett Packard Co to develop the system, which Internet 
>users can access using a high-security personal code. 
>	 Clients will be able to view detailed balances on their  
>deposit, current and securities accounts and transact all normal 
>banking business on the World Wide Web. 
>	 Although online banking is a developing trend on the German  
>financial services market, larger banks with far broader 
>customer bases are working on more selective Internet packages. 
>	 Thomas Gries, one of Gries & Heissel's personally-liable  
>directors, said he regarded Internet banking as a logical 
>supplement to the bank's existing services. 
>	 ``We have had an Internet home page since October 1995. This  
>move from a pure information medium to an interactive one was a 
>logical one,'' Gries said. 
>	 Banking officials attending the CEBIT electronics conference  
>in Hanover this week said German online banking business was 
>poised to grow dramatically. 
>   ``In the next six months, five to ten German banks will be on  
>the Internet,'' said Stefan Schoeller, board member at Bayerische 
>Vereinsbank AG unit Vereins- und West Bank. 
>	 Vereinsbank plans to launch Internet services within about  
>six months via its Advance Bank direct unit, pending a review of 
>security options. 
>	 Rival discount broker Direkt Anlage Bank, a unit of  
>Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel Bank AG, on Tuesday launched 
>an Internet service for its securities account holders at half 
>the cost of its telephone banking service. 
>	 Meanwhile market leader Deutsche Bank AG is to test  
>electronic cash on the Internet this autumn in a joint 
>initiative with Dutch electronic payments group Digicash NV. 
>	 Vereinsbank officials at CEBIT said they planned a steady  
>expansion of the bank's online options over the coming years, 
>predicting 10 to 15 percent of its current account clients would 
>be online by the year 2000. Around 12 million Germans would rely 
>on home banking by that date, the bank predicted. 
>	 At the moment, around 3.7 percent of the bank's clients, or  
>45,000 individuals, handle their banking via PC alone, Stefan 
>Schoeller said. 
>	 Hewlett-Packard's German sales manager Michael Lindner said  
>his company, which last year helped set up the world's first 
>Internet bank, Security First Network Bank, had spoken to 
>several other German banks about some kind of Internet venture. 
>	 ``We certainly do not plan to limit our involvement to a  
>small exclusive bank,'' he said. 
>	 Lindner said there were about two million Internet users in  
>Germany and 35 million worldwide. He admitted that the amount of 
>bank business transacted on the Net -- about $200 million -- was 
>``very limited'' but predicted a dramatic rise in volume. 
>	 Vereinsbank's Schoeller said the cost advantage alone made  
>it worthwhile for customers to go online. A normal current 
>account incurred charges of 8.40 marks a month, while the same 
>account online would cost just 5.40 marks, he said. 
>	 All banks are stressing the security of the Internet.  
>  	   	
>
>
_______________________
Regards,            Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; 
                    serenity, that nothing is. -Thomas Szasz
Joseph  Reagle      http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html
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