November 20, 2007

2007 US Bank Public Web Site Rankings
by Brad Strothkamp for eBusiness, Channel & Product Management Professionals

Making Leaders Successful Every Day

For eBusiness, Channel & Product Management Professionals

2007 US Bank Public Web Site Rankings
by Brad Strothkamp with Carrie Johnson and Brendan McGowan

November 20, 2007

Forrester’s Competitive SiteAssessment Ranks Five Top US Banks

EXECUT I V E S U M MA RY
Forrester evaluated ?ve of the largest US bank Web sites — Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo — using our Competitive Site Assessment (CSA) methodology. Citibank topped this year’s rankings by excelling in many of the key assessment areas, including Web site navigation and presentation, along with providingstrong product content and tools.

TABLE O F CO N T E N TS
2 Forrester’s Competitive Web Site Assessment Methodology 3 Ranking The Sites: Citibank Tops This Year’s US Ranking 5 Best Practices Of US Bank Web Sites Navigation: Getting Researchers Where They Need To Go — Fast Presentation: Focusing User Attention On Key Information Research Functionality And Content: Selling The ProductApplication Functionality And Content: Completing The Sale
RECOMMENDATIONS

N OT E S & R E S O U R C E S
Forrester reviewed the credit card and checking account content and applications for ?ve of the largest US banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Wachovia, and Wells Fargo.

Related Research Documents “Why Financial Shoppers Abandon Online Product Applications” August 22, 2007
“2007Canadian Bank Public Web Site Rankings” April 12, 2007 “Ten Ways To Build A Better Financial Services Sales Site” November 7, 2006 “Evaluating UK Banks’ Online Sales E?orts” September 6, 2006

18 Three Areas Of Focus For Today’s Bank Public Web Sites

© 2007, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, and Total Economic Impact are trademarksof Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Forrester clients may make one attributed copy or slide of each ?gure contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited. For additional reproduction rights and usage information, go to www.forrester.com. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions re?ect judgment at thetime and are subject to change. To purchase reprints of this document, please email [email protected].

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2007 US Bank Public Web Site Rankings
For eBusiness, Channel & Product Management Professionals

FORRESTER’S COMPETITIVE WEB SITE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY A recent Forrester survey revealed that ?nancial service eBusiness executives rate the number and value of online sales asthe top two metrics when determining the value of the online channel.1 So how well are US bank sites driving sales online? To help answer this question, we used Forrester’s Competitive Site Assessment (CSA) methodology on some of the top bank US Web sites. Our approach follows these steps:

· De?ne a user scenario. Checking accounts and credit cards are the two most researched bankingproducts on the Internet.2 Our user goal matches this trend: In our public site persona, Mark Cada is a 34-year-old resident of San Diego. He has recently moved and plans to use the Internet to research both a new checking account and a new credit card provider. He is considering applying for both products online since he makes a myriad of other purchases online already (see Figure 1).

· Score thesites on user criteria. Our CSA methodology examines more than 60 individual criteria

that measure each site’s ability to move visitors toward their goals — in this case, researching and applying for a credit card and checking account. Sites receive a grade between 0 and 3 on each of the criteria, which are grouped into four categories: Web site navigation, Web site presentation, research…