Bank of Scotland expands internet banking in Europe

The Bank of Scotland is to launch new internet banking services in Germany and Spain next month. If the bank's board decides on May 11 to make the push into Europe, the new EUBOS businesses should be online within six months.

The bank has also revealed that its first internet operation in Holland, set up last December, cost less than #3 million to design and build. The new banking services in two of Europe's largest countries, would offer savings and mortgage facilities in a bid to capture a internet banking market of 21m people by 2004.

The rapid success of the EUBOS site in Holland - attracting one million hits a month and 2500 mortgage applications - has impressed bank chiefs. The systems developed to operate the internet service, that allows homebuyers to apply for a mortgage and receive their decision online, will also form the core of all BoS internet services.

Willie Donald, the BoS's head of e-commerce, said that the bank was now ready to compete in the European market, after carefully studying the best business models for internet banking.

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