BankWest is one of several regional banks that have recently been extending from their home states into the broader national banking market. One of the factors that makes such a move possible is online banking, which can bring even remote banks to anyone, anywhere in the country, without the need for bricks and mortar down the road.

The BankWest site is relatively straightforward. It has a utilitarian appearance and strangely small default text size. The interface is intuitive enough, although it doesn’t compare to the likes of NAB or even Bank of Queensland.

Through the site you can view your account details, review statements and filter transactions by date, type, amount and text. These can then be exported in a wide range of formats. The interface does have some flexibility: you can rename and reorder accounts as they appear on the front page. Context-sensitive help is also available through a link on every page, as is an icon for printing the entire page.

However, there are some quirks. For example, viewing an activity report reveals an expansive list of just about every action you’ve taken during your past sessions, not only listing transactions and changes, but whether you viewed a particular screen. The formatting of the activity report is also somewhat arcane, with text such as “ViewBalancesLandingPage=False, ExportFormat=OnScreen” leaving you to parse it into English yourself.

Otherwise features are as you’d expect. You can perform transfers internally and externally, although not overseas. One quirk is that any regular transfers that are established when you create the account don’t appear through the online interface, and you need to contact BankWest customer service directly to change them. Only regular transfers created online are you able to edit yourself.

Security is handled in a conventional manner, with only a single password required to get online, consisting of 6-10 alphanumeric characters, including at least one number. No additional measures are available, such as SMS codes or tokens, although BankWest does give a refund guarantee should any of your funds fall by the wayside to fraudsters. BankWest also recommends ZoneLabs security products and offers a 25 percent discount on ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

BankWest’s online component is a fairly no frills affair, but it gets the job done. For day to day banking and transactions, it’s more than adequate, although it can’t compare with the more sophisticated examples, such as NAB and ANZ.