Financial services firms in Europe are pushing harder than their North American counterparts to capture online market share, according to research from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

Europe is already ahead of the US when it comes to internet banking. In Europe, 4% of all banking transactions currently take place over the internet. This is expected to rise to 25% in 2003. In the US the current figure is 3% of transactions, projected to rise to only 12% in 2003.