Evidence of trends comes in anecdotes, growth rates, and especially, milestones. Commonwealth Bank of Australia's February announcement of its one millionth online customer is a milestone which could be construed to prove a number of things, among them: Commonwealth's internet banking prowess or the popularity of internet banking in Australia in general. As we shall see, the million-customer mark is more of the latter than the former.

To assess just how favorably the million-customer number reflects on Commonwealth, and Commonwealth's internet banking in particular, we need to break down that number in greater detail. Of the one million customers counted, only 60% were banking online, in the sense of engaging in the account-balance-checking, funds-transferring activities we associate with banking. The balance was made up people involved in the market share leader CommSec online broking, as well as other less transactional products like HomePath, the bank's online home loan application site. CommSec's February total of 600,000 customers (200,000 of whom trade online) and the 200,000 users of CBA's HomePath and other services gave CBA its one million online customers. But while getting customers to trade shares or get mortgage information online is terrific, but this is still different from getting one million online banking customers.

But getting more than half a million customers banking online, more than any other Aussie bank at the time, must mean CBA is doing something right. In fact, Commonwealth's success in online banking is largely a matter of its success in banking. That is, CBA has the most customers online simply because it has the most customers. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, ANZ has the highest percentage of customers online with 8.6% performing transactions via the Internet, compared to (in a number disputed by Commonwealth) only 5% for CBA. Even with Commonwealth's figure of 600.000 online customers out of a base of 8 to 9 million yields a take up rate of between 6.7 and 7.5 percent. Applying the Nielsen-quoted ANZ take up rate of 8.6% to a middle estimate of Commonwealth's customer base of 8.5 million means Commonwealth needs a total of 731,000 online banking customers to be as successful, in relative terms, as ANZ.

A month after mid-February announcement, Westpac took the lead in absolute numbers as well as relative percentages, albeit with a US-election-like margin of victory: Westpac's 647,168 just edged out CBA's 645,847 online banking customers. By May, the race had see-sawed again, with CBA back in front, and by a margin of about 16,000, although Commonwealth remains behind in terms of take-up rates.

A functionality-oriented ranking of online banking in the region corroborates the findings. Asian Banker's own Gilboa Report placed ANZ in the 24th percentile among regional banks with Westpac in the 32nd percentile. CBA, meanwhile, ranked just below average in the 58th percentile.

So while the million-customer-announcement may not prove CBA to be king of internet banking, the number is still quite significant, in large part because it is already so outdated. By the end of April, online banking customers on their own seemed well on track to hit the one-million milestone: NetBank customers grew from 600,000 in February to 780,000 at the end of April, an astonishing 30% for just that period alone.

The real excitement behind the one million customer mark and the growth that follows it is not what is says about Commonwealth Bank of Australia, but what is says about Australia: Put simply, people Down Under are accepting the internet as a viable alternative to expensive branches. As far back as the end of last year, a total of 2.25 million customers banked online, representing about 11.7% of Australia's total population, beating even the heavily wired Koreans. Banks there enjoy 5.29 million online customers, among a population of 48 million for a total of 11%.

While Australian banks are still more bricks than clicks, anecdotes, growth rates and milestones all point to continuing acceptance of online banking Down Under.