From January 2004, the Hang Seng Bank began to provide individual online banking services in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other places.

The number of users has been increasing in recent years, especially in the developed cities, which has helped Internet banking to become popular.

But it seems domestic lenders have not done enough to ensure the safety of online banking at a time when an escalating number of computer viruses are threatening the sector.

A report compiled by the Beijing Jiangmin New Science and Technology Company said that during the period from August 2004 to October last year, the number of users infected with computer viruses targeting online banking services multiplied 600 times.

In the first 10 months of 2005, more than 37,000 computers were infected with the Trojan virus or its mutations.
To safeguard the security of online banking, Chinese lenders have introduced digital certificates or put a cap on the daily online transactions allowed.

For instance, the Bank of Communications has a daily limit of 5,000 yuan ($640).

The banking regulator issued rules last March demanding both domestic and overseas players to strengthen their supervision of the nation's e-banking business.

"Internet banking safety will become more complex as the battle between the hackers and financial institutions intensifies," He said.

Li Xiaofeng, general manager of the China Financial Certification Authority, believed that a unifying standard for issuing digital certificates would help resolve disputes between banks and users.

"It's unfair to victimize customers just because the banks shift their responsibilities by promoting certificate systems, such as U-key and USBkey," he said.

A third party, independent from banks and users, is needed to unify the certificate standards, he said, and in future users would need only one security certificate to conduct online transactions at different banks.

"Online banking security urgently needs protection laws," Li said.

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