Banks failing to satisfy online customers

Gartner has warned financial institutions that they could lose online banking customers by failing to focus sufficiently on personalisation.

The analyst firm surveyed nearly 4,000 consumers in the US and UK to examine attitudes and behaviour towards retail payments, banking and investment services.

Respondents were asked about 18 different online banking features, and security came out top followed by single-sign on services.

Other popular features included the ability to deposit cheques online from home, set up a separate account to save for a specific goal, set up alerts for account and card balances, and analyse spending and cash flow.

Gartner research director Stessa Cohen argued that customers and banks want very different things in the online sphere.

"Customers want to personalise their experiences, analyse their transaction and payment data so they can better manage their money, pay bills and transfer funds," she said.

"Banks want to sell customers more products, but those that neglect personalisation trends now will sacrifice online, and possibly mobile, banking customers later."

Gartner advised banks to look at the features ranked most highly by consumers in the survey against their current online banking offerings, and then build a plan to provide the services to customers.