The wave of financial mergers in the US will result in a shake up of the Internet banking market, but Bank of America will continue to have the most online customers, according to figures from Web metrics firm comScore.
ComScore says the Chase merger with WaMu and potential Wachovia deals will see the new entities gain millions of online banking customers, with little customer overlap.
As a result of its merger with Washington Mutual merger, Chase will add 7.4 million new online customers, making a net total of 21.4 million.
Wells Fargo stands to gain 6.4 million new Web banking customers if it manages to merge with Wachovia, making a total of 17.0 million e-banking customers. Meanwhile Citi will see its total online customers base increase to 18.2 million if it merges with Wachovia.
"In terms of existing online customer overlap, the Chase/WaMu and Wells Fargo/Wachovia or Citi/Wachovia mergers have surprisingly little," says Marc Trudeau, senior director, marketing solutions, comScore.
But the analysis shows that BoA will continue to be the industry leader with 24.6 million online customers. This figure does not even take into account the potential increase in online bankers that would come from an eventual integration of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch.