Bank of America tops 10 million online subscribers

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More consumers are going online to take care of their financial services, and Bank of America is capturing the recent growth.|ret||ret||tab|

Citing an increase in online service needs, free online bill payment and more residential high-speed connections, Bank of America announced April 21 that its online services topped 10 million active subscribers and 4 million active bill payers. |ret||ret||tab|

The subscriber milestones were aided by a 2003 fourth quarter in which Bank of America captured more than half of all active bank bill-pay accounts, according to comScore Networks. Nearly 50 percent of Bank of America's checking account households actively bank online, up from 35 percent a year ago.|ret||ret||tab|

Industry-wide, consumer adoption of online banking is increasing 14 percent each year, according to Jupiter Research.|ret||ret||tab|

"Customers are handling more of their banking needs online, whether it's to check account activity, view statements, transfer funds or pay bills," said Sanjay Gupta, Bank of America e-Commerce executive, in a news release. "We expect this trend to continue as more people discover just how easy and convenient it is to bank online."|ret||ret||tab|

Gupta said there are three reasons for the rapid growth:|ret||ret||tab|

More customers are going online for service needs, such as ordering new products, transferring money and checking balances. Bank of America statistics show about 43 percent of customers contact the bank online, compared to 34 percent through banking centers and 23 percent by phone.|ret||ret||tab|

Customers are more likely to use online bill payment when it is free. For instance, Fleet saw a 44 percent annualized growth rate when it eliminated fees in December 2003. That was up from a 14 percent growth rate in 2003. The sharp increase is consistent with the growth bank of America experienced when it dropped bill pay fees in 2002.|ret||ret||tab|

More than 60 percent of the bank's customers are using high-speed Internet connections to access their accounts, making online banking even faster and easier.|ret||ret||tab|

This month's merger with Fleet adds 350,000 new active subscribers and 150,000 new bill payers every month. Though Bank of America and Fleet officially merged April 1, Fleet customers will continue to access their accounts at the Fleet site until next year when systems are integrated.|ret||ret||tab|

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