'Easy to use'
"While younger people continue to make up the majority of online banking users, the greatest proportion of new internet bankers are the over 55s," said Sandra Quinn, from Apacs.
"As a group they have come to embrace the ease and efficiency that online banking offers," she added.
However the growth of telephone banking has slowed down, Apacs noted.
Last December telephone bank customers were outstripped by their online counterparts for the first time, with nearly 16 million adults now doing some of their banking via the phone.
"Our research shows that more and more people are turning to the internet rather than the phone to manage their finances," Sandra Quinn said.
The age group among whom online bank users are most numerous is now 35-44 year olds.
Last year 4.2 million of them had an account of this sort, closely followed by 25-34 year olds, 4.1 million of whom banked online.
