The concept of Internet Banking (or Home Banking as some call it) has become a rather omnipresent thing in the offers of many banks and while in Romania it is still marketed as a novelty, in the more civilized world (even in the Middle East, to some people’s surprise) it is something normal to provide.

For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, Internet Banking (hereinafter abbreviated as IB) refers to the ability to conduct daily tasks with your banking account through the use of either a web browser or a specialized application from the comfort of your home, as long as you have access to Internet.

This type of service has provoked many heated debates over security (as we all know, hackers never sleep and the security of your bank account is vital) and while this goes beyond the scope of the present article, I will say that currently the ‘de-facto’ standard in IB communication is the TSL/SSL protocol, version 3, which is implemented almost across the board in the browser world (starting with the silly Internet Explorer 6 and ending with the paranoid Firefox 3).

In Romania, however, things move rather slowly and banks have never been friends with the Internet. Starting with their early presence online (in the late 90’s), Romanian banks have been constant targets while also being unable to afford (or implement ) real security. Given this, they’ve never been at the front of the technological advances in banking and electronic transactions, not even when it involved marketing and presentation.

When it comes to actual Internet Banking services, Romanian banks tend to have deplorable habits (sometimes even discriminatory). To be sure you can use Internet Banking, you MUST use Windows and you MUST use Internet Explorer. In a world of security, you may wonder why that is. I wonder too.

So I’ve decided to try and answer that and moreover, I conducted a short survey of banks and the technical demands you must fulfil in order to have access to Internet Banking. Below are the results (stay tuned for this will be updated as the results come in):

Raiffeisen Bank (visit)

* very prompt reply, the first bank to answer the inquiry email. They ‘benefit’ from an extremely ugly site, built in an old-fashined way, loads slowly and also display annoying ‘music’ which rarely stops on the first click. On a positive note, the site is quite usable and one shouldn’t have problems finding information. There were no major display problems under various browsers (Firefox, Opera, IE).

* the answer regarding Internet Banking was rather standard – it works in Windows and the browser are Internet Explorer 5.5, 6, Firefox 1.0.5 and Opera 9.01. Linux users seem to be excluded though if you take browsers (since the web app is more dependent on browser, if browsers don’t have extremely different versions per operating system) using Firefox or Opera might give you a chance. Still, the recommended version for Firefox is extremely old and version 3 has a lot of improvements regarding SSL, therefore chances are you’ll be taking a risk. Using Opera under Linux for Raiffeisen’s services would be a decent bet so Raiffeisen scores a point here. Notable exclusion is Internet Explorer 7.

* stuff you can pay: electricity, heating gas, vodafone, orange, romtelecom, zapp, upc.

* cost: 1 euro/month

Banca Transilvania (visit)

* the answer was very brienf and somewhat tried to cover all the stuff you can’t do through BT 24 services. The respondent cut the technical possibilities to Windows and Internet Explorer 5.5/6/7 and that’s that. Through personal experience I can add that Transilvania’s Internet banking options for Linux are void and non-existant, in clear cut discrimination. I was kindof hoping things have changed since last year (when I gave up my account with them).

* their website ’suffered’ a face lift which doesn’t really improve the user experience. You have to fight a little to get relevant information. Although it looks somewhat nicer, it’s still built in an ancient style which ignores standards. There area display errors on Firefox and Chrome (kinda figures since it ignores standards). On a positive note, Transilvania has very clear-cut contact information so while the website isn’t much help, you can still find a source for information. But this kinda nullifies the use of the site. Web verdict: Transilvania scores minuses across the board.

* stuff you can pay: electricity, heating gas, vodafone, orange, romtelecom.

* price: 1 RON/month (quite cheap)

BCR & Millenium (visit BCR, visit Millenium)

* these two don’t provide contact email in an accessible way through their website, so I couldn’t reach them in an online manner. BCR provide an tedious, big and useless contact form.

* the Millenium web site is nice and tidy. Finding information is fairly easy and the technology used in creating it is valid and standard. Congratulations to the Millenium web team.

* the BCR site is one of the ugliest I’ve seen and the use of red highlight could leave a visitor wishing they were Daltonists. On a positive note, BCR has tried to use better web technologies in presentation but the use of ancient <font> tags puzzles parsers and leaves thinking that BCR should hire some people that know what they’re doing.

ING (visit)

* clean and functional website, surprisingly fast given that it’s built on ancient technology. Probably they tried to keep it compatible with old browsers (but it’s not).

* the answer ING returned on my inquiry was a standard (most likely copy/paste) which gave no interesting details. Unfortunately they mention Windows as the only functional platform for their Internet Banking service. However, they specified Firefox as a possibility but the lack of technical details leaves many gaps on the path to taking a decision. I must say this is very very poor consulting on behalf of ING.

* what you can pay: this was the only concise part in their answer. They list Electrica, RDS, Orange,Vodafone, Enel, EON Gaz, Romtelecom and Cosmote.

* cost: 3 RON/month

BRD (visit)

* the answer was extremely tedious and evasive, no technical details were given so I was just as puzzled about what I can use as I was before. A late answer informed me that Opera and Firefox are usable with the banking service, but their Linux  versions are uncertain.

* the BRD site is built in a dated manner and although looks nice, its navigation is horrendous and overall a rather frustrating experience (when I say nice, I compare it to other romanian banking sites). Finding information is easy enough though and while the design is awkward, there are no major errors in browsers.

* what you can pay: nothing specific was mentioned in the first message. The second message brought no further clarification.

* price: 1 euro/month

Banc Post (visit)

* finally a rather clear answer: Banc Post services can be used regardless of operating system and teoretically on any browser, although the service was tested only on Internet Explorer and Firefox.

* their website is a combination of new and old technologies, very usable and quite friendly, speed is fair but not impressive. Finding information is very easy, starting with the first page. Also, the navigation is easy and a good user experience. Kudos to Banc Post web team.

* what you can pay: unclear, the message said “anything where the supplier accepts electronic orders”. I would like a list though.

* cost: free (wow!)

Unicredit Tiriac (visit)

* the Unicredit tiriac website is a bit cluttered but accessible and information isn’t too hard to find. Built on old technology, it is also slow and not very search engine friendly.

* their Internet banking service is accessible only on windows while using Internet Explorer 5.5 or better, with SSL enabled.

* what you can pay: they mentioned Romtelecom bills, Orange, Vodafone, DistriGaz, Zapp and also private pensions funds.

* cost: free (you already payed your Windows license, right?)

As a conclusion, I can say that the practice of Internet Banking is still in its infancy here in Romania. Most banking consults don’t know the technical details of the service they’re providing nor are they able to offer straight answers on simple questions. Support for non-windows clients is near inexistent (even the one bank that offers a compatible service doesn’t offer the support) and practical security is unknown. There’s no wonder that so many banks were victims of direct phishing attempts. Their staff and also their clients have no concept of security (like I said, they praise Internet Explorer, figure that).

In the meantime, I look forward to joining the family of Banc Post clients, even though their credit card tarrifs are spicy. Maybe some of the other banks should learn faster how to offer an accessible internet banking service in the year 2008.