(June 21) – A new survey from the Angus Reid Group and Royal Bank says Canadians are among the world’s keenest online banking customers.

The study found that nearly one in five Canadian Internet users has already tried Internet banking, nearly one in three says they will soon, and nearly everyone who has tried it will use it again. Canadian online banking intentions rank us eighth among 30 countries included in the survey. Americans ranked 14th, while the top markets are the ultra-efficient Germans and urban South Africans.

Online stock trading and other Internet-based investing services were less appealing. About one in 10 Canadian Internet users said they were “very likely” to trade or make other investments online in the near future. The number was about the same in the U.S. The keenest online traders are in South Korea, Singapore and Germany.

“We’re finding across the world that as people go online, banking is one of the commercial applications that has an immediate appeal,” said Gus Schattenberg, Angus Reid Group global products vice president. “Online banking has a following among users in the most developed Internet markets, but there are even some emergent markets where online banking is carving a niche among the leading edge of users.”

The survey used 28,374 interviews with consumers and Internet users in Canada and 29 other countries as part of Angus Reid’s The Face of the Web study of global Internet usage and habits. Ir also suggests the U.S., while having more Internet bankers overall, is adopting online banking at a slower rate.

“We’ve experienced exponential growth the last several years among customers moving towards our online delivery channels. In fact, we’re now very close to enrolling our millionth online customer and we expect that growth to continue,” said Tom Wolf, Royal Bank’s senior vice-president for e-Business. “This study confirms our own experience that Canadians are world leaders in adopting the Internet for electronic banking.”

Full results of the survey can be found at www.royalbank.com/newsroom and www.angusreid.com.