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This time, the bankers say, they think consumers will be more ready to move their money online.
"The security and the integrity of the Internet today is vastly superior both in terms of speed and in terms of security than it was in the 1990s," said Howard P. Milstein, chief executive of Emigrant Bank. "We take security very seriously, so we're constantly trying to be a little bit better," he said, adding that Emigrant is about to require customers to have 10-digit passwords, rather than eight, to make accounts that much harder to break into.
In addition, many of the banks offering Internet accounts have scaled back their expectations. Unlike 1990s offerings such as Wingspan Bank, most of today's online banks don't expect their customers to give up on tellers and the real world entirely.
Many of them, including Emigrant, HSBC and ING, offer only savings accounts online because they expect customers to keep their primary checking account.
"It may be that, in time, customers will pick and choose: I'm going to a particular branch bank for the service . . . but I'm going to go somewhere else for my savings," said Kevin Newman, head of personal financial services for HSBC.
Citibank has taken the opposite tack -- it requires customers to open a checking account as well as a savings account but then allows online account holders to use the windows at its 900 branches.
Internet bank accounts may also seem more attractive right now because of the current fluctuations of the stock and bond markets. Bond yields have been low, and bond mutual funds may shed value if interest rates rise. The best-known equity index, the Dow Jones industrial average, this month climbed within 100 points of its high and then plunged 400 points over the next week. Similarly, the Nasdaq Composite Index has given up all its gains for the year in the past two weeks.
In addition, many financial planners are reluctant to recommend longer-term CDs because they think interest rates are likely to rise further. "These days, it really doesn't hurt to be sitting in cash," said Joan H. Herrett, an Annapolis-based planner with Ameriprise Financial.
