PORTLAND, Ore. National Discount Brokers Corp.s Web site was ranked highest in a WebCriteria Inc. study of the top six brokerage sites.
WebCriteria, a research and consulting firm, ranked the sites in order of the time and effort required to open a trading account online. The study was released Monday. National Discount Brokers required just over three and a half minutes to open an account.
E-Trade Group Inc.s site came in second, followed by Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Ameritrade Holding Corp. Banc of America Investment Services Inc., which had a time of over nine minutes, ranked last.
Alistair Williamson, chief executive officer of WebCriteria, said more than 23 million adults invest online, a total that has doubled since 1999. As more and more investors turn to the Internet, brokerage firms must provide a superior online experience or customers will go to one of the many other competitors to manage their investments, he said.
