The new service, which is free for all of Chase's banking customers, allows for Internet access, and offers improved graphics and an easier navigation system than the proprietary online banking programme the bank launched in 1997, the bank said.

Customers now can access deposit data over the Internet, and the bank soon would offer credit cards, mortgages, auto-finance and investment products as well, said James Springer, Chase's senior vice president of emerging channels.

New York-based Chase, number three in US banking company behind Bank America, is relatively late among US banks offering Internet access to customers, but Springer said the bank had a long-term commitment to the channel and realised the potential cost savings it offered.

"At the moment (the Internet) is primarily a service channel," Springer said. "What we do for customers is we tell them about their accounts, and we enable them to do things over this channel. We certainly see... in terms of national expansion the capability of being able to market and sell to customers as being just as important over time as the service channel."

Bill Doyle, an analyst at Forrester Research, said it was quite late for a major US bank such as Chase to be rolling out Internet access but the delay probably had not cost them many customers.

"It is not fatal and I seriously doubt Chase lost a significant number of customers to competitors who had Internet banking," Doyle said. "There are still not that many people banking on-line."

Chase launched the proprietary on-line banking programme which required software in 1997 and has signed up over 400,000 customers for the service. It continues to exceed enrollment expectations of over 1,000 customers every day, it said.

With Internet access, Macintosh computer users, which were unable to use Chase's proprietary on-line banking programme, would also be able to do their banking with Chase on-line.

"Certainly the Internet is likely to reduce the cost of delivery for the bank over time, but that is not our primary reason for doing this," Springer said. "It offers the customer the ubiquity of access we are looking for."

Consumer and small-business customers could access real-time deposit account information, 24 hours a day, from any computer with a modem access or an Internet connection.

Customers could check account balances, track account activity, such as checks paid and deposits credited, transfer money between accounts, pay bills electronically, and send electronic mail to Chase customer service representatives.

Springer said Chase had a print and broadcasting advertising campaign prepared to promote the service in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.