Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Visa Inc. Posts Strong Fiscal Third Quarter 2011 Earnings Results and Authorizes New $1 Billion Share Repurchase Program


SAN FRANCISCOJuly 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
  • GAAP quarterly net income of $1.0 billion including a non-operating gain related to the Visa Europe put option revaluation
  • Adjusted quarterly net income of $883 million or $1.26 per diluted class A common share excluding the revaluation of the Visa Europe put option
  • The Company authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced financial results for the Company's fiscal third quarter 2011 ended June 30, 2011. GAAP net income for the quarter, inclusive of a non-cash, non-operating gain related to the Company's revaluation of its Visa Europe put option, was $1.0 billion.  
On an adjusted basis, which excludes the revaluation of the Company's Visa Europe put option, net income for the quarter was$883 million, an increase of 23% over the prior year, and diluted class A common stock earnings per share were $1.26, an increase of 29% over the prior year.  The weighted-average number of diluted class A common shares outstanding was approximately 704 million.  The Company's adjusted quarterly net income per class A common shares outstanding is a non-GAAP financial measure that is reconciled to its most directly comparable GAAP measure in the accompanying financial tables.
GAAP net operating revenue in the fiscal third quarter of 2011 was $2.3 billion, an increase of 14% over the prior year and driven by strong double-digit growth in service revenues, data processing revenues and international transaction revenues. Currency fluctuations contributed two percentage points of growth towards quarterly net operating revenues.
"Visa delivered another quarter of strong financial and operational performance as we benefitted from growth in global payments volume, and solid cross border and processed transaction growth," said Joseph Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc.  "As we address the new regulatory landscape, we are prepared to deliver on our financial goals and remain an industry leading  growth company in the global transactions space."
"Visa is a diverse global enterprise, with strong positions in both developed and emerging markets around the world, and we are committed to further diversifying our business and accelerating growth in key markets worldwide," said Saunders.  "We are executing on our growth strategy, investing heavily in innovation and taking important steps to bring new products and solutions to our partners and consumers."
Fiscal Third Quarter 2011 Financial Highlights:
Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended March 31, 2011, on which fiscal third quarter service revenue is recognized, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $862 billion.
Payments volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, for the three months ended June 30, 2011, was a positive 13% over the prior year at $941 billion.
Cross border volume growth, on a constant dollar basis, was a positive 14% for the three months ended June 30, 2011.
Total processed transactions, which represent transactions processed by VisaNet, for the three months ended June 30, 2011, were 13 billion, a positive 11% increase over the prior year.
For the fiscal third quarter 2011, service revenues were $1.1 billion, an increase of 21% versus the prior year, and are recognized based on payments volume in the prior quarter. All other revenue categories are recognized based on current quarter activity. Data processing revenues rose 12% over the prior year to $886 million. International transaction revenues, which are driven by cross border payments volume, grew 15% over the prior year to $662 million. Other revenues, which include the Visa Europe licensing fee, were $167 million, a 10% decrease over the prior year. Client incentives, which are a contra revenue item, were $448 millionand represents 16% of gross revenues.
Total operating expenses on a GAAP basis were $977 million for the quarter, a 10% increase over the prior year.
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and available-for-sale investment securities were $6.7 billion at June 30, 2011.
Visa's effective tax rate was 38% for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, excluding the revaluation of the Visa Europe put option.
Notable Events:
On June 6, 2011, the Company acquired Fundamo, a leading platform provider of mobile financial services for mobile network operators and financial institutions in developing economies, for total consideration of approximately $110 million paid with cash on hand. In addition, the Company announced a new, long-term commercial agreement with Monitise plc, a leading provider of mobile money solutions for financial institutions in more developed geographies. The combination of acquiring Fundamo and expanding the relationship with Monitise will enable Visa to deliver best-in-class mobile financial services and payments capabilities to consumers across the full spectrum of uses, geographies and mobile environments from basic services on simple handsets to more advanced services for smart phone owners.
During the quarter, the Company received regulatory approval for the sale of its 10 percent investment in Visa Vale issuer Companhia Brasileira de Solucoes e Servicos, or CBSS, to Banco do Brasil and Bradesco.  This resulted in a pre-tax gain, net of transaction costs, of $85 million recognized in the investment income net line on the consolidated statements of operations. The amount of the gain net of tax was $44 million.      
During the three months ended June 30, 2011, the Company repurchased approximately 13.7 million class A common shares, at an average price of $77.36 per share, for a total cost of $1.1 billion.
As announced on July 22, 2011, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend in the aggregate amount of $0.15 per share of class A common stock (determined in the case of class B and class C common stock on an as-converted basis) payable onSeptember 7, 2011, to all holders of record of the Company's class A, class B and class C common stock as of August 19, 2011.
Today, the Company announces that its Board of Directors has authorized a new $1 billion class A share repurchase program. The authorization will be in place through July 20, 2012, and is subject to further change at the discretion of the Board.
Financial Outlook:
Visa Inc. updates its financial outlook for the following metric for 2011:
  • Capital expenditures: Moderately above $300 million.

Visa Inc. affirms its financial outlook for the following metrics through 2011:
  • Annual net revenue growth: 11% to 15% range;
  • Client incentives as a percent of gross revenues: top end of the 16% to 16.5% range;
  • Marketing expenses: Less than $900 million;  
  • Annual operating margin: About 60%;
  • GAAP tax rate: 36.5% to 37% range, excluding the revaluation of the Visa Europe put option;
  • Annual diluted class A common stock earnings per share growth of greater than 20%; and
  • Annual free cash flow in excess of $3 billion.

Visa Inc. affirms its financial outlook for the following metrics through 2012:
  • Annual net revenue growth: high single to low double digit range; and
  • Annual diluted class A common stock earnings per share growth: mid to high teens range.

Fiscal Third Quarter 2011 Earnings Results Conference Call Details:
Visa's executive management team will host a live audio webcast beginning at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time (2:00 p.m. Pacific time) today to discuss the financial results and business highlights. All interested parties are invited to listen to the live webcast at http://investor.visa.com. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Visa Investor Relations website for 30 days. Investor information, including supplemental financial information, is available on Visa Inc.'s Investor Relations website at http://investor.visa.com.
About Visa
Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visitwww.corporate.visa.com.

Electronic Payment Exchange Enters Person-to-Person Payments Market


Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX), a full-service payment processor, announced today the Company’s entrance into the person-to-person (P2P) payments market by completing Visa certification for processing Visa Personal Payment transactions.

payment processing from Electronic Payment Exchange
Wilmington, DE (PRWEB) July 26, 2011
Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX), a full-service payment processor, announced today the Company’s entrance into the person-to-person (P2P) payments market by completing Visa certification for processing Visa Personal Payment transactions. EPX’s Visa Personal Payment certification enables EPX to facilitate person-to-person payments through Visa, where EPX serves as the payment processing link that connects a financial institution or its P2P platform provider with VisaNet, the world’s largest electronic payments processing network.
Visa Personal Payment transactions eliminate the inefficiencies of cash and checks for payments between individuals by enabling Visa cardholders to send person-to-person payments to a recipient’s Visa account or personal bank account. Through Visa and participating financial institutions, cardholders and the financial institutions’ customers can direct payment from their respective Visa accounts or personal bank accounts via an Internet-connected device or mobile phone.
Offering solutions that facilitate automated person-to-person payments through credit and bank accounts illustrates EPX’s agility and dedication to emerging technologies. “Obtaining Visa Personal Payment certification shows our commitment to meeting market demands and maintaining leadership as a payment processor,” EPX Chief Operating Officer Michael Moyer stated. “The use of P2P payments is expected to rise sharply, and the introduction of Visa Personal Payment transaction capabilities demonstrates our ability to quickly deliver new payment technologies.”
Realizing the increasing demand for non-cash person-to-person payments, EPX Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Joe Babin sees tremendous potential in EPX’s P2P processing capabilities. “Offering Visa’s P2P transactions opens up new opportunities for EPX,” stated Babin. “Providing P2P services that compete with the likes of PayPal and Square are on the horizon for EPX.”

Debit-card overdraft suit wins class-action status


Consumers who say they were wrongfully charged overdraft fees won class-action status Tuesday in their lawsuit against a San Francisco bank, the first in a series of cases pending against some of the nation’s largest financial institutions. The suit claims that Union Bank processed debit-card transactions from largest to smallest, rather than chronologically, to increase the risk that customers would overdraw their checking accounts.  read more

Symantec Announces July 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report


Aggressive use of rapidly changing malware leads to rise in sophisticated socially engineered attacks; twist in phishing attacks bait mobile phone users

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – July 26, 2011
 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced the publication of its July 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report, now combining the best research and analysis from the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs Intelligence Report and the Symantec State of Spam & Phishing Report. This month’s analysis reveals a significant increase in activity related to what may be described as a aggressive and rapidly changing form of generic polymorphic1 malware. With one in 280.9 emails identified as malicious in July, the rise accounted for 23.7 percent of all email-borne malware intercepted in July; more than double the same figure six months ago, indicating a much more aggressive strategy on the part of the cyber criminals responsible.

Click to Tweet: Aggressive use of rapidly changing malware leads to rise in sophisticated socially engineered attacks: http://bit.ly/qenShi

“The number of variants, or different strains of malware involved in each attack has grown dramatically, by a factor of 25 times, when compared to the previous six months. This is a disturbing proliferation in such a short time, increasing the risk profiles of many organizations as these new strains are much harder to detect using traditional security defenses,” said Paul Wood, senior intelligence analyst, Symantec.cloud.

The report shows that the malware is frequently contained inside an executable within the attached ZIP archive file, and often disguised as a PDF file or an office document, for example. “This new aggressive approach to distributing generic polymorphic malware on such a scale should be concerning for many businesses, particularly for those who rely solely on more traditional security countermeasures, which this type of malware is designed to evade. One example of this technique involves changing the startup code in almost every version of the malware; subtly changing the structure of the code and making it harder for emulators built-in to many anti-virus products to identify the code as malicious,” added Wood.

Further analysis also reveals that phishing attacks have been seeking various means to exploit vulnerable cell phone users. According to Wood, “Two key areas in which we can see this trend are, firstly, the increase in phishing against wireless application protocol (WAP) pages, which are lightweight Web pages designed for smaller mobile devices such as cell phones; and secondly, the use of compromised domain names that have been registered for mobile devices, for example, using the .mobi top-level domain.”

Symantec has identified phishing sites spoofing such Web pages and has been monitoring the trend. In July, social networking and information services brands were frequently observed in these phishing sites. The primary motive of these attacks continues to be identity theft. Targeting cell phone users is just part of a new strategy for achieving the same result.

Other report highlights:
Spam: In July 2011, the global ratio of spam in email traffic rose to 77.8 percent (one in 1.29 emails); an increase of 4.9 percentage when compared with June 2011.

Phishing: In July, phishing email activity increased by 0.01 percentage points since June 2011; one in 319.3 emails (0.313 percent) comprised some form of phishing attack.

E-mail-borne Threats: The global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic was one in 280.9 emails (0.333 percent) in July, an increase of 0.01 percentage points since June 2011.

Web-based Malware Threats: In July, Symantec Intelligence identified an average of 6,797 Web sites each day harboring malware and other potentially unwanted programs including spyware and adware; an increase of 25.5 percent since June 2011.

Endpoint Threats: The most frequently blocked malware for the last month was W32.Ramnit!html. This is a generic detection for .HTML files infected by W32.Ramnit2, a worm that spreads through removable drives and by infecting executable files. The worm spreads by encrypting and then appending itself to files with .DLL, .EXE and .HTM extensions. Variants of the Ramnit worm accounted for 17.3 percent of all malicious software blocked by endpoint protection technology in July.

Geographical Trends:
Spam
  • As the global spam level declined in July 2011, Saudi Arabia remained the most spammed geography, with a spam rate of 85.6 percent Russia remained the second most-spammed.
  • In the US, 78.0 percent of email was spam and 77.7 percent in Canada.
  • The spam level in the UK was 78.2 percent. 
  • In The Netherlands, spam accounted for 78.8 percent of email traffic, 77.9 percent in Germany, 77.6 percent in Denmark and 75.8 percent in Australia.
  • In Hong Kong, 76.8 percent of email was blocked as spam and 75.7 percent in Singapore, compared with 74.7 percent in Japan.
  • Spam accounted for 76.9 percent of email traffic in South Africa and 78.7 percent in Brazil.
Phishing
  • Phishing attacks in the UK increased to overtake South Africa and become the most targeted geography for phishing emails in July, with one in 127.9 emails identified as phishing attacks. Phishing in South Africa fell slightly to make it the second most targeted country, with one in 163.1 emails identified as phishing attacks.
  • Phishing levels for the US were one in 1,237 and one in 192.6 for Canada. 
  • In Germany phishing levels were one in 798.3, one in 1,448 in Denmark and one in 526.9 in The Netherlands. 
  • In Australia, phishing activity accounted for one in 850.8 emails and one in 2,503 in Hong Kong; for Japan it was one in 13,167 and one in 872.9 for Singapore.
  • In Brazil, one in 382.4 emails were blocked as phishing attacks.
E-mail-borne threats
  • Email-borne malware attacks rose in South Africa as the country became the geography with the highest ratio of malicious emails in July, overtaking the UK as one in 125.2 emails was identified as malicious in July; in the UK one in 127.0 emails was malicious.
  • In the US, virus levels for email-borne malware were one in 634.8 and one in 255.9 for Canada. 
  • In Germany virus activity reached one in 482.1, one in 1,033 in Denmark and in The Netherlands one in 451.3.
  • In Australia, one in 654.8 emails were malicious and one in 748.7 in Hong Kong; for Japan it was one in 2,093, compared with one in 761.8 in Singapore.
  • In Brazil, one in 332.1 emails in contained malicious content.
Vertical Trends:
  • In July, the Automotive industry sector remained the most spammed industry sector, with a spam rate of 80.7 percent.
  • Spam levels for the Education sector reached 80.3 percent and 77.9 percent for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector; 77.8 percent for IT Services, 77.8 percent for Retail, 77.0 percent for Public Sector and 77.0 percent for Finance.
  • The Public Sector remained the most targeted by phishing activity in July, with one in 73.2 emails comprising a phishing attack. 
  • Phishing levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector were one in 799.0 and one in 566.2 for the IT Services sector; one in 482.3 for Retail, one in 87.8 for Education and one in 396.7 for Finance.
  • With one in 62.1 emails being blocked as malicious, the Public Sector remained the most targeted industry in July. 
  • Virus levels for the Chemical & Pharmaceutical sector were one in 438.9 and one in 390.0 for the IT Services sector; one in 418.3 for Retail, one in 79.1 for Education and one in 443.5 for Finance.
The July 2011 Symantec Intelligence Report provides greater detail on all of the trends and figures noted above, as well as more detailed geographical and vertical trends. The full report is available here.

Related
Connect with Symantec
About Symantec Intelligence Report
The Symantec Intelligence report combines the best research and analysis from the Symantec.cloud MessageLabs Intelligence Report and the Symantec State of Spam & Phishing Report. The new integrated report, the Symantec Intelligence Report, provides the latest analysis of cyber security threats, trends and insights from the Symantec Intelligence team concerning malware, spam, and other potentially harmful business risks. The data used to compile the analysis for this combined report includes data from June and July 2011.

About Symantec
Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

The State of the Internet - Volume 4, Number 1 - 1st Quarter, 2011 Report

Akamai's 'State of the Internet' Report Enters Fourth Year of Analyzing Global Connectivity, Attack Traffic and Broadband Consumption


  • Company introduces data visualization tool to track historical trends over time
  • More than 584 million unique IP addresses connected to the Akamai Platform in Q1 2011
  • Global average connection speed increased 23 percent year over year to 2.1 Mbps

CAMBRIDGE, MA – July 26, 2011 - Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today released its 1st Quarter, 2011 State of the Internet report. Based on data gathered from the Akamai Internet platform, which carries between 15-30 percent of the world’s Web traffic at any one time, the report provides insight into key global Internet statistics such as the world’s fastest and slowest regions for connection speed, origins of attack traffic and the highest-performing geographies for mobile connectivity. (Editor's note: see attached statistics that highlight three-year trends.) 

With the State of the Internet report entering its fourth year of providing quarterly analysis, Akamai has released a new data visualization tool showcasing trends by geography in several measured categories. The tool allows users to generate and download graphs highlighting average connection speed, average peak connection speed, and high broadband/broadband/narrowband adoption rates. In addition, the online tool offers quick, easy and customized views of trend data since the report was first published at the beginning of 2008. 

Highlights from Akamai's 2011 first quarter report: 

Internet Penetration
In the first quarter of 2011, more than 584 million unique IP addresses from 237 countries/regions connected to the Akamai Internet platform. This represents 5.2 percent more IP addresses than connected in the fourth quarter of 2010, and an increase of 20 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago. 

Consistent with last quarter’s report, the top ten countries/regions accounted for nearly 70 percent of the total IP addresses, indicating that the majority of the world’s unique IP addresses are concentrated within a proportionally small number of geographies. This report welcomed Italy into the top ten with its 11 percent quarter-over-quarter growth and saw Canada drop out of the top ten. 

Mobile Consumption & Connectivity 
In the first quarter of 2011, the average measured connection speed for known mobile providers worldwide ranged from a high of slightly more than 6 Mbps to a low of 163 kbps. The report also identifies a service provider from Poland delivering the highest average mobile connection speed in the first quarter 2011, bumping last quarter’s fastest provider from Greece to the number two spot. 

Consumption figures indicate that during Q1 2011, users at seven percent of the surveyed mobile providers consumed an average of 1 GB per month from Akamai’s platform. Users at 73 percent of surveyed providers consumed an average of 100 MB of content from Akamai, and users on the remaining 20 percent of providers consumed less than 100 MB. 

As a result of Akamai’s recently announced partnership with Ericsson, the report now includes data collected by the equipment provider. Overall mobile data traffic, as measured by Ericsson, experienced 130 percent yearly growth in the first quarter, and is now more than double the volume of voice traffic. 

Attack Traffic
The latest findings reflected in the report show some significant changes in Q1 2011 related to sources of attack traffic. Most notably, Myanmar not only made its first appearance on the list, but also ranked #1 by generating 13 percent of attack traffic during this period. Among other changes, the United States rose from 5th to 2nd, accounting for 10 percent of observed global attack traffic. Russia dropped into 4th place, accounting for 7.7 percent of global observed attack traffic, down from 10 percent in the previous quarter. With respect to attack traffic originating from mobile network providers, Italy remained in the top spot, responsible for 25 percent of observed attack traffic in the first quarter. 

100 Fastest Cities Worldwide
In the first quarter of 2011, analysis of the top 100 fastest cities around the world, based on average connection speeds, reflected the following:

  • Cities in Asia dominate the list, including 61 cities in Japan, five cities in South Korea, and Hong Kong.
  • Lyse, Norway is the fastest city in Europe (#33 out of 100)
  • 18 U.S. cities made the list, with Riverside, CA ranking as the fastest U.S. city (#39 out of 100)

Getting Away from Narrowband 
Looking at the world’s narrowband connections (connections to Akamai at speeds slower than 256 kbps), the report shows global adoption of narrowband decreased by 15 percent in the first quarter 2011. Only 3.3 percent of all connections to Akamai were made at narrowband speeds. France led with the lowest narrowband adoption rate of .3 percent. 

About the Akamai State of the Internet report 
Akamai’s quarterly State of the Internet report is based on data collected from the globally-distributed Akamai Internet Platform, carrying as much as 30 percent of global Web traffic on any given day, and with servers located in 650 cities, 72 countries and deployed within approximately 1,000 of the Internet’s most important networks. 

To learn more, and to access the archive of past reports, please visitwww.akamai.com/stateoftheinternet. 

To download the figures from the Q1 2011 State of the Internet report, please visit:http://wwwns.akamai.com/soti/soti_q111_figures.zip 

About Akamai 
Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure e-commerce. Combining highly-distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai's global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world's leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter

NetSpend to Announce Second Quarter 2011 Results on August 3rd



Source: NetSpend Holdings, Inc.
LogoAUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NetSpend Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTSP), a company whose mission is to empower the estimated 60 million underbanked consumers in the United States with the convenience, security and freedom to be self-banked, today announced that the company will present results from its 2011 fiscal second quarter on Wednesday, August 3rd at 5:00 p.m. EDT via dial-in conference call and online webcast.
Interested parties may dial 877-853-5634 or 707-287-9375 (international); or visithttp://investor.netspend.com to listen via webcast. A replay of the call will be available at 855-859-2056 or 404-537-3406 (international); conference ID: 87087368 until August 10th and a replay of the webcast will be available for one year on the company's website.

About NetSpend
NetSpend is a leading provider of general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid debit cards and related financial services to the estimated 60 million underbanked consumers in the United States who do not have a traditional bank account or who rely on alternative financial services. The company's mission is to develop products and services that empower unbanked consumers with the convenience, security and freedom to be self-banked.  Headquartered in Austin, TX, NetSpend is traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol NTSP.
Please visit http://www.netspend.com for more information.

Two-Thirds of 13.3 Million Canadian Online Banking Customers Used Online Bill Payment in Q1 2011

Image representing comScore as depicted in Cru...Image via CrunchBase

comScore Announces Availability of Canadian Online Banking Insights Report

TORONTOJuly 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the availability of the comScore Canadian Online Banking Insights report, providing a detailed look into emerging trends in the Canadian online banking industry. Based on comScore's opt-in research panel of approximately 40,000 Canadian Internet users, the detailed quarterly reports include web site visitation, online marketing metrics, transaction benchmarks and mobile banking data that yield critical insights into emerging trends and consumer behavior in the Canadian online banking industry.
"We are excited to introduce a solution to the Canadian financial services industry leveraging comScore's industry-leading measurement solutions and expertise in the online banking sector," said comScore vice president Bryan Segal. "At comScore, we have long provided actionable insights into a broad range of online financial services such as credit cards, brokerage and mobile banking, which have helped our clients optimize their strategic digital marketing decisions. Through comScore's Canadian Online Banking Insights report, financial services firms in Canada now have access to a wealth of competitive insights to help them understand the industry landscape and maximize the return on their digital investment."
Online Bill Payment Sees High Penetration in Canada
An analysis of the Canadian online banking sector in Q1 2011 showed that there were 13.3 million online banking customers across the top Canadian financial institutions who manage checking or savings accounts online. Included in the competitive set for this analysis were the BMO Financial Group, National Bank of Canada (BNC), Canadian International Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Desjardins Group, HSBC, ING Group, President's Choice Financial, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Scotiabank and TD Bank.
Three out of five online banking consumers use their bank's online bill pay platform. Although the number of online banking consumers in Canada is a fraction of the total in the U.S., bill payment users account for a similar percentage of total online banking customers, indicating a healthy demand for online payment services in Canada.
Online Banking Customers in Canada and U.S.
Q1 2011
Total Canada and U.S.
Source: comScore Financial Services
Country
Total Online Banking Customers (MM)
% of Banking Customers Using Online Bill Payment
Canada
13.3
62%
U.S.
63.6
68%

Mobile Banking Usage High among Apple Smartphone Mobile Subscribers
An analysis of mobile banking in Canada, using March 2011 data from comScore's recently debuted MobiLens Canada service, reveals 12.3 percent of Canadian mobile subscribers accessed banking, credit card, insurance or brokerage account information using their mobile phones over the course of the month. Importantly, 90.2 percent of those who used these mobile financial services specifically reported accessing banking information. Among these mobile banking customers, 77.5 percent used smartphones, with Apple accounting for more than half of all smartphone platforms used, followed by RIM as the second-most popular platform.
Mobile Banking Users by Mobile Phone Platform
March 2011
Total Canada Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Platform
% of Mobile Bankers
Index to Total Mobile Population*
Feature Phone
22.5%
68
Smartphone
77.5%
235
  Apple
43.2%
425
  RIM
22.2%
161
  Google
5.1%
127
  Microsoft
2.9%
159
  Symbian
2.3%
108
  Palm
0.9%
154
*Index of 100 indicates average representation

TD Bank and RBC had the highest penetration among mobile bankers, reaching 26.7 percent and 25.7 percent of this group, respectively, followed by CIBC (17.0 percent reach), Scotiabank (13.2 percent reach) and ING (9.8 percent reach).
Reach of Canadian Banks Among Mobile Bankers
March 2011
Total Canada Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
Bank
% Reach Among Mobile Bankers
TD Canada Trust
26.7%
RBC
25.7%
CIBC
17.0%
Scotiabank
13.2%
ING
9.8%

Online Banking Display Advertising Market Delivers 2.0 Billion Impressions in Q1 2011
The Canadian online display advertising industry saw the Banking industry contribute 2.0 billion of the 157.8 billion ad impressions delivered in Q1 2011. ResMor Trust Company (Ally Bank) ranked as the top Banking advertiser for Q1 with 1.3 billion ad impressions, accounting for 62.9 percent of display ads in the Banking category. Other top Banking advertisers include HSBC Group, ING Group, RBC, Desjardins Group and CIBC.
About comScore Canadian Online Banking Insights
The quarterly comScore Canadian Online Banking Insights report delivers these and other analyses on emerging trends in the online banking sector in Canada. To learn more about the report, please contact Bryan Segal, comScore vice president, atbsegal@comscore.com.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Disqus for ePayment News