The UK saw a major surge in internet banking use last year as consumers increasingly embraced digital services.
Britons made almost seven billion transactions using internet services provided by the UK’s high-street banks as online banking use grew 40% since 2009, according to a report from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA).
This figure mainly consists of 1.1bn online account queries, but also includes 316m bill payments, 293m inter-account transfers, and 152.6m direct debit or standing order creations or amendments.
There were also 10.5m stop payment instructions, an eight-fold increase on the previous year, showing the increasing efforts of UK banks to provide a wider range of online services as customers increasingly turn away from high-street branches.
"These figures provide more evidence of the ongoing revolution in the way millions of us spend, move and manage our money, said Richard Woolhouse, the BBA’s chief economist.
"There are clear productivity gains for our economy from internet banking. Many of us are spending less time queuing in branches and can avoid unnecessary fees by keeping a sharper eye on our balances. This is helping customers and providing wider economic benefits."
Last month, another BBA report revealed that UK consumers spend nearly £1bn a day using mobile and online payment methods as adoption of digital banking soared.
Overall, Internet and mobile banking transactions were worth £6.4bn a week, the report found, up from £5.8bn last year. There were over 14.7m downloads of mobile and tablet banking apps every week, with internet banking services receiving seven million log-ins per day.
Elsewhere, figures from analytics firm Juniper Research predict that the number of online banking users will top those of traditional online banking users by 2019.
More than 1.75bn mobile phone users will have used their devices for banking purposes by the end of 2019, compared to 800 million this year, it said.
