This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here.  
  • Delicious




Egg Forced To Revamp Fund Supermarket

Caroline Maxwell, Tax-news.com, London

29 January 2001

Egg, Europe's largest online bank, recently learned the hard way that investors are still wary of investing over the internet, and is revamping its online fund supermarket section in an attempt to make it more user-friendly for new investors. The company's director of strategic alliances, Mark Taylor explained: 'There are a number of lessons for us. One of them is that you do not rely on the Internet to do everything. People want a comfort factor and telephone back-up.'

Despite the millions spent by Egg and other financial institutions on launching online 'supermarkets' to sell mutual funds direct to consumers, recent research conducted by the opinion polling agency Mori has shown that the majority of European investors are still wary of investing over the internet, citing security fears, badly pitched information, and the impersonality of online banking and trading as concerns. The recent spate of internet start-up failures may also have helped to create the impression that online ventures are somehow less reliable than bricks and mortar institutions.

The company is now engaged in 'clearing out the clutter' from the funds section of its website, and also plans to streamline the application process, which is apparently one of the points at which customers are being scared off, wary of giving out intimate financial information over the internet.

Egg must also make sure that more experienced investors are not alienated by the changes, as the Mori research showed that there is considerable polarisation between consumers, some of whom want hand-holding, and some of whom, in Taylor's words, 'want information and they want to get it quickly.'

.

 

 






Write a comment