Jun 2

Written by: ngreditor
6/2/2009 7:21 PM 

Online banking very safe, very fast

Kenneth Purscell

Six months ago, the Bank of Newman Grove had just begun to try out banking services over the internet. Today, over one hundred customers do part of their banking over the computer network.

The bank had started its exploration of the online world with some caution. “We put our website up on June 22 [last year],” said bank president Jeff Gerhart. “We began the online banking on December 1.”

Security was a major reason to go slow. Many of the bank’s customers were very traditional in their financial practices. Some were unfamiliar with computers and felt vulnerable in the networking age. The bank took time and pains to make sure the system would be secure.

“We’re definitely not the first small bank to do this,” said Gerhart. “We checked with a lot of banks in Nebraska and learned from their experiences.”

Authentication is important to security. When you log on to your account, it is vital that the bank knows it really is you. “We wanted to make our choice by how much authentication the site would require,” said Gerhart.

So when the Bank of Newman Grove finally made the decision to provide online banking, they had help from experienced website companies. “Goldleaf Financial Services deals exclusively with financial institutions,” said Gerhart. “They had almost ten years of experience and are very reliable.”

The result? The online banking at BNG is very safe and reliable. And it’s also very quick and easy.

Customers can track their accounts, transfer money between accounts, and even pay bills over the internet. “Even the first time I tried paying bills,” said Gerhart, “it turned out to be faster than writing checks and mailing them.”

“Online customers can also pull up their statements and make categories for their transactions,” said Connie Rankin, who oversees the online service. “They can even see images of their checks as they return.”

And for the truly computer literate, the accounts can be downloaded to accounting programs such as Microsoft Money. “Or you can download the information and take it to your accountant,” said Rankin.

This writer has had some experience with internet banking, and has an online account with BNG. The service is impressive. Menus are easy to understand and navigate. The response time is very quick, and the display very clear. The default font size is a little small, although there are instructions on the site to help make the print more readable.

That is, however, my only small quibble with the site. For ease of navigation and simple design, the BNG online banking is actually better than Bank of America’s online service.

“With online banking, small banks like ours can have a level of service equal to what larger banks have,” said Gerhart.

The online service itself is free. The bank’s website is http://banknewmangrove.com and it has a link to a demo for internet banking.

Copyright ©2009 Newman Grove Reporter