The number of individual e-banking users was up 11% compared to the end of the previous quarter, while 10% growth was seen among corporate e-banking users in the same period, GKI noted.
According to the research institute's prediction, the number of private Internet banking users will likely reach 700,000 by the end of 2005, up 80,000 from earlier predictions. Meanwhile, the number of corporate banking clients using Internet banking is foreseen to rise to 105,000 by the end of the year. Hungary has a population of 10.1 million, and has 1.3 million businesses or self-employed individuals.
Broken down by sector, banks still have a more positive opinion on business opportunities related to the Internet than do insurance companies, GKI said. The report notes that such a somber view on the part of insurers is surprising, given the revival of the online insurance market in October–November, in turn driven by the annual renewal period of third-car insurance policies.
According to banks' expectations, the fastest growing segment of online banking will be that of transfers, followed by checking account information, and monitoring pre-paid mobile phone accounts. At the other end of the spectrum, banks believe that equity trading and loans application will be the least dynamically growing online segments in the coming year.
