Colonial Bank is the latest financial institution to start using the World Wide Web - a part of the Internet that can handle multimedia presentations - to ballyhoo its offerings.
The Montgomery, Ala.-based bank has placed about 24 pages of information about its products and services on the global computer network.
Colonial's posting - it's called a "home page" - on the web will carry information about its mortgage products and its rates for certificates of deposit and loans.
The service is targeted at the bank's customer base in Huntsville, Ala., which has an unusually high concentration of technology-friendly consumers. There is a NASA base nearby, and the town has several high-tech companies, noted Joy McKnight, a spokeswoman for the bank.
Colonial said it expects to install within a month an interactive feedback line that customers can use to submit comments about this and other banking services. By midyear, the $2.7 billion bank plans to also provide loan applications via this medium, Ms. McKnight said.
A string of banks have started providing information through the web of interconnected computer networks that make up the Internet.
First Union Corp., Toronto Dominion Bank, and Signet Banking Corp. have each published informational material on the Internet in hopes of attracting new business from computer users.
Each of these institutions has published in excess of 100 pages on information. A number of other large banks are expected to follow suit in the coming year.
