FRANKFURT, Aug 28 (Reuter) - German private bank Gries & Heissel Bankiers on Wednesday launched an Internet banking service -- the first comprehensive service of its kind in a country where online bank options are gradually taking off. The small Berlin-based bank linked up with U.S. computer firm Hewlett Packard Co to develop the system, which Internet users can access using a high-security personal code. Clients will be able to view detailed balances on their deposit, current and securities accounts and transact all normal banking business on the World Wide Web. Although online banking is a developing trend on the German financial services market, larger banks with far broader customer bases are working on more selective Internet packages. Thomas Gries, one of Gries & Heissel's personally-liable directors, said he regarded Internet banking as a logical supplement to the bank's existing services. ``We have had an Internet home page since October 1995. This move from a pure information medium to an interactive one was a logical one,'' Gries said. Banking officials attending the CEBIT electronics conference in Hanover this week said German online banking business was poised to grow dramatically. ``In the next six months, five to ten German banks will be on the Internet,'' said Stefan Schoeller, board member at Bayerische Vereinsbank AG unit Vereins- und West Bank. Vereinsbank plans to launch Internet services within about six months via its Advance Bank direct unit, pending a review of security options. Rival discount broker Direkt Anlage Bank, a unit of Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechsel Bank AG, on Tuesday launched an Internet service for its securities account holders at half the cost of its telephone banking service. Meanwhile market leader Deutsche Bank AG is to test electronic cash on the Internet this autumn in a joint initiative with Dutch electronic payments group Digicash NV. Vereinsbank officials at CEBIT said they planned a steady expansion of the bank's online options over the coming years, predicting 10 to 15 percent of its current account clients would be online by the year 2000. Around 12 million Germans would rely on home banking by that date, the bank predicted. At the moment, around 3.7 percent of the bank's clients, or 45,000 individuals, handle their banking via PC alone, Stefan Schoeller said. Hewlett-Packard's German sales manager Michael Lindner said his company, which last year helped set up the world's first Internet bank, Security First Network Bank, had spoken to several other German banks about some kind of Internet venture. ``We certainly do not plan to limit our involvement to a small exclusive bank,'' he said. Lindner said there were about two million Internet users in Germany and 35 million worldwide. He admitted that the amount of bank business transacted on the Net -- about $200 million -- was ``very limited'' but predicted a dramatic rise in volume. Vereinsbank's Schoeller said the cost advantage alone made it worthwhile for customers to go online. A normal current account incurred charges of 8.40 marks a month, while the same account online would cost just 5.40 marks, he said. All banks are stressing the security of the Internet.
_______________________ Regards, Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. -Thomas Szasz Joseph Reagle http://rpcp.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle@mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E