For Canadians, the safety and security of online banking and their confidence in the security provided by their financial institution are key drivers influencing their decision to bank online, according to recent research by TD Canada Trust.

A national survey of more than 700 respondents in November 2005 asked a wide range of questions of TD Canada Trust customers and customers of other Canadian financial institutions, including those who used online banking and those who didn’t.

Among non-users, other than a preference to use the branch or other channels, concern about the safety and security of Internet banking was the top reason for consumers to not adopt online banking. The survey also found that there was generally good awareness among both users and non-users of general Internet security terms like spam and spyware, yet the terms phishing or website spoofing were recognized by less than 30% of online banking users and less than 20% of non-users.

Survey respondents also indicated that approximately one in ten customers reported receiving a phishing e-mail targeting TD Canada Trust within the past year, with nearly a third reporting the e-mail to the bank and the majority simply deleting the suspicious message.

Nearly one in five customers also reported a change to their online behaviour due to online security threats with the vast majority of these changes being respondents installing security software or a firewall to better protect themselves from the threats. As a result, a substantial majority of online banking users now employ software solutions to improve their security when banking online.

Despite this, however, the survey also found that a significant majority of customers (82%) believe their bank should be primarily responsible for security measures with respect to online banking.

“This suggests that while online banking is now as typical as banking via more traditional channels like branches, ABMs and the telephone,” says Jeff van Duynhoven, vice-president of electronic banking, “people not only assume but quite frankly require a high degree of comfort in the online security offered by their financial institution. In other words, online security is non-negotiable.”