Bank of Montreal Sites Achieves Fastest Visitor Growth during Past Year

Of the nearly 24 million Canadian Internet users, 15.5 million visited a banking site in April. RBC Financial group led the category with 4.6 million visitors, followed by TD Bank Financial Group with 4.5 million visitors and Bank of Montreal Sites with 3 million visitors. Among those banks in the top 10, Bank of Montreal Sites experienced the greatest increase in visitation during the past year, growing 22 percent.

Top Online Banking Sites April 2008 vs. April 2007

Total Unique Visitors (000)

	Apr- 07	Apr -08	% Change
Total Internet : Total Audience	23,026	23,947	4
Banking	15,138	15,468	2
RBC Financial Group	4,646	4,564	-2
TD Bank Financial Group	4,459	4,527	2
Bank of Montreal Sites	2,474	3,020	22
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	2,807	2,873	2
Desjardins Group	2,870	2,722	-5
Scotiabank Group	2,642	2,348	-11
PCFINANCIAL.CA	1,150	1,039	-10
BNC.CA	923	975	6
ING Group	901	817	-9

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

“Canadians are typically very savvy Internet users, a fact that is underscored by their heavy usage of online banking,” said Brent Bernie, president of comScore Media Metrix, comScore Canada. “But because the Canadian online banking sector is so developed and competition already so fierce, banks need to closely examine how they are meeting the needs of their consumers online if they are to achieve customer growth and retention through this increasingly important channel.”

Some key facts that highlight Canadians’ heavy usage of online banking:

• Of the 37 global markets individually-reported by comScore, Canada ranked number one in adoption of online banking, with 67.1 of Canadian Internet users banking online in April 2008. Other English-speaking countries had significantly lower penetration, including the U.K. (49.5 percent), U.S. (44.4 percent), and Australia (41.7 percent).
• Canadians also led the world in online banking frequency, with an average of 8 usage days and 10.5 online banking visits per visitor in April.
• Canadians spent an average of 46 minutes on banking sites in April, viewing approximately 121 pages per visitor.

Source: Comscore