Traditional Canadian banks are making major headway integrating online banking, brokerage and other related lines of business into long-envisaged one-stop financial services supermarkets, according to Gomez, Inc., an internet quality measurement firm.

GomezCanada’s Q1-2002 Internet Banking Scorecard shows an industry progressing on a variety of online fronts, from single sign-on account access and pre-filling of existing customer data through site performance and telephone-based customer service consistency.

“Web channel improvements during the evaluation period were punctuated by the advent of account aggregation services, which enable consumers to gain a cross-institutional view of their financial picture through a single Web interface,” said Guy van Rooyen, senior analyst with GomezCanada. “While Royal Bank of Canada and Laurentian are leading the account aggregation revolution, many other banks have promised to integrate this service into their Web offerings during 2002.”

Moderate movement has been made relative to online mutual fund capabilities (i.e., purchasing, redemption, transfers) that are offered online. Minimal enhancements were made at many sites such as the ability to transfer funds online to another person’s account at the same firm.

“Another industry wide shortcoming: Secure and non-secure site design remains a world apart, creating unnecessary consumer confusion,” said Don Rolfe, managing director for GomezCanada. “For example, Gomez research identified numerous instances where a consumer must exit a secure site in order to apply online for a product/service via a non-secure site.”

TD Canada Trust won the overall category in part due to its single sign-on functionality, integration between banking and brokerage platforms and design consistency between secure and non-secure areas.

Rankings for the Q1-2002 Internet Banking Scorecard are as follows(previous Scorecard finishes in parentheses):

1. TD Canada Trust (1st)
2. Royal Bank of Canada (6th)
3. Scotiabank (7th)
4. Bank of Montreal (4th)
5. CIBC (8th)
6. Vancouver City Savings (14th)
7. Citizens Bank of Canada (3rd)
8. Laurentian Bank (2nd)
9. HSBC Bank (10th)
10. National Bank of Canada (13th)
11. President’s Choice Financial (9th)
12. Desjardins (5th)

The results for Gomez’s four individual customer profiles were as follows; TD Canada Trust was rated first for Internet Transactor and Saver; Royal Bank took top honors for One-Stop Shopper and Borrower.

Gomez experts assessed bank site usability, utility and performance against more than 200 objective criteria to produce the Canadian Q1-2002 Internet Banking Scorecard. The criteria are related to specific elements of quality in the internet delivery of service.