OREANDA-NEWS. September 01, 2008. “The fact that our Internet banking services are used by an increasing number of customers and each year our efforts are acknowledged by respected experts in the field of banking is the best proof of the effectiveness of the strategy we pursue, reported the press-centre of SEB Bank.

In our opinion, this year the top award has been primarily determined by further improvement in our Internet banking services, by continuous upgrading of the system, so that our customers can use it for their daily needs as conveniently as possible,” said Vytautas Sinius, Executive Vice President of SEB Bank in Lithuania and Head of Retail Banking.

V. Sinius maintained that during recent years besides an increase in the number of on-line banking clients there has been growth in the customer activity as people tend to resort to a considerably larger number of services offered via the Internet. 

At the close of the first half-year of 2008 the bank had 763 thousand Internet banking clients, which is a 11.9 per cent increase as against the previous year. The number of money transfer transactions via SEB Bank’s Internet banking system during the first half-year was 19.3 per cent higher as compared to that during the previous year. 

The main criteria based on which Global Finance has for the ninth time appraised Internet banking services provided by banks in different regions all over the world included the strategy of providing Internet banking services, the ability to attract customers for using Internet banking services, their customer base growth, the range of their services, obvious benefits of their offerings, the website design and functionality.   

“Over less than a decade, the Internet has transformed the way many consumers and most businesses bank. The continuing improvements in the Internet offerings represented by this year’s entries show that more significant Internet banking developments are still ahead of us,” said D. Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance.

Global Finance, published since the year 1987, has about 50 thousand subscribers and about 284 thousand readers in 158 countries worldwide. The majority of this audience are chairmen, chief executive officers, finance experts, etc.