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Johannesburg, 29 October 2007 ] - Security remains small to medium businesses' most pressing issue when considering business electronic banking products, according to a report by research firm BMI-TechKnowledge.

Survey participants were asked to choose their three most important issues when thinking about the products.

Security is more of a factor now than in the past, with 57% of respondents highlighting the issue as their most important consideration, up from 55% in last year's report.

“The issue of security is understandable, as Internet fraud – specifically phishing – is a constant threat to these businesses,” says banking analyst and co-author Selvie Naicker.

Phishing involves the fraudulent use of e-mail and the Internet to trick people into giving confidential information such as credit card details, bank account numbers, and passwords.

“However, the banks' actions and their messaging around security has created high levels of confidence for these businesses to conduct their business banking online, a confidence level of 92% for the small to medium businesses and 94% for the corporate sector,” says Naicker.

Security is followed by availability (stable systems) and functionality as top concerns, according to the report, “Business Electronic Banking in the Small to Medium Business Sector”.

Fifty-three percent of respondents highlighted availability, against 49% last year, while 44% mentioned functionality, compared with 42% last year.

Price appears to be less of a consideration, with the number of respondents who selected price as one of the top three issues declining from 30% to 26% – the same level as 2005.

The report also shows that the Internet is now a fully-integrated part of companies' business, both in the small-to-medium and corporate sectors.

“The challenge that banks face is that both business sectors are requesting a return to a more personalised and one-to-one customer relationship,” Naicker says. “The technology and related issues are now well entrenched and stable within the company's financial systems and simplistically, customers would like to go back to the basics of ‘lean and mean' business electronic banking systems aligned with customer support, service and interaction.”