The Commonwealth Bank said in its latest six-monthly profit statement that "the total number of transactions performed in direct/electronic channels increased over the half year to 31 December 2002, while branch teller transactions continued to decline."
The CBA said the proportion of total transactions carried out in branches fell from 14.4 to 12.2 percent over that period. The fastest growing channel for the Commonwealth Bank was NetBank, which processed more than 134 million transactions.
Telephone banking also remained strong, with more than 76 million calls received on the banks' customer service line over the period. ATM usage grew by six percent, while EFTPOS usage grew by 15 percent.
The Commonwealth Bank's New Zealand operations reported an increase of eight percent in transactions over the six months to 31 December 2002, compared to the same period last year. The Internet banking service FASTNET saw customer numbers grow to 229,590 by the end of 2002, compared to 149,545 at the end of 2001.
The Commonwealth Bank has also launched a branch re-engineering program, which will see the removal of processing activities from branches. The bank is also upgrading its ATM network infrastructure and branch telling platforms.
