250,000 Customers Crowd NationsBank's PC Banking System

NationsBank Corp. says it has two and a half times as many customers for PC home banking - 250,000 - as it expected to have by now.

Though pleased with the response, bank officials acknowledged that the demand has taxed system capacity. Customers trying to do their banking in the early evening have often been unable to dial in. NationsBank said it will be upgrading the system's capacity.

Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank phased in its personal-computer program state by state over nine months, starting in Texas and ending in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington last month.

Through its marketing success - NationsBank is in a PC- banking elite that includes Citicorp and Wells Fargo & Co. - and its ownership stakes in Meca Software Inc. and the Integrion home banking consortium, NationsBank has gone a long way toward integrating the electronic channel into its retail distribution strategy.

"The future is one in which consumers and small businesses will choose their bank based on how it distributes service and where that distribution fits their personal needs," said Edward Furash, chief executive officer of Furash & Co., a Washington-based consulting firm. "So all banks have to engage, in one way or another, in the new forms of distribution."

NationsBank officials said home banking also enhances their ability to cross-sell. This quarter the company plans to start phasing in a system of E-mail messages that promote various products.

Most of the 250,000 were already NationsBank customers, said Sandra Ivey, vice president for PC banking, but some came over from competitors.

Most customers are using the system to do routine tasks such as moving money between accounts, balancing checkbooks, and confirming transactions. Such services are free, though the banks charges a nominal sum for software. But a sizable number of cusomters are paying $5.95 a month for the ability to write electronic "checks" - as many as 20 a month.

Customers of recently acquired Boatmen's Bancshares will not be included in the PC banking program until 1998, according to NationsBank officials. The delay is for integrating Boatmen's systems with NationsBank's.

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