The share of South African women that bank online increased from just around 19% to over 43% over the last five years.
This according to research conducted on Absa`s Internet banking base.
These findings echo Webcheck`s 2006 research report that found that 41% of Internet users are male and 59% are female.
Says Venete Klein, Absa executive director: "What these statistics tell us is that there is a growing recognition by women of the convenience of online banking.
"Many women run their own businesses from home, care for their children and are using Internet banking to pay their staff and their bills. In other words, they are finding ways to save time by conducting their transactions online," says Klein.
On average, Absa clients conduct over four million financial transactions per month on Internet Banking worth an estimated value of R30 billion.
"In one year this means that an average of R360 billion is transacted online using Absa`s Internet Banking Service. This could be equivalent to the five-year state budget of a small country in Africa," says Klein.
"With SMS notifications of all transactions conducted online, Internet Banking remains one of the safest ways to transact," says Klein.
At 633 493 active services Absa is still the largest Internet bank in the country holding at least 39% of market share (Webcheck 2006). Absa has held a prominent position as a leader since the inception of Internet Banking to the South African market in 1996.
Although Webcheck`s report indicates that 24% of respondents in the research question the safety of Internet Banking across all banks, security features implemented at Absa over the past 10 years are helping to dissolve these fears.
Security features include:
* One time password feature, particularly applicable to beneficiary creation. Before anyone can create and pay a new beneficiary using their Internet account, a Random Verification Number (RVN) gets sent to the client on their cellphone. Only if this password is typed in, will the Absa system allow the client to register a new beneficiary and pay them. This method puts an effective stranglehold on fraudsters, because they are not able to transfer money into their accounts.
* NotifyMe is an SMS notification service of activities on cheque, savings, credit card and certain investment accounts
* Free antivirus and firewall software
* An 8 - 12 digit alphanumeric password of which only 3 random characters are requested each time you login.
* A timeout system if Internet Banking is not used for a certain period of time
* A personalised greeting phrase
* Date and time display of last logon
* 7 Day chronologic view of all actions on Internet banking (a transaction log)
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