For many of us, the first introduction to Commonwealth Bank was student savings accounts; the Dollarmites Club still runs to this day. Perhaps by roping them in early, Commonwealth maintains a leading position in retail banking, and offers an austere, but impressively functional, online arm, NetBank.

After undergoing a revamp around mid-2005, NetBank has remained relatively static, but still provides easy access to a broad range of features. The interface consists of a tabbed row of drop-down menus with options that are mirrored through a horizontal bar on the left. Information is readily available on every page and through context-sensitive help.

Commonwealth offers a competitive range of features, with a highlight being a comprehensive online statement component, where you can view statements up to seven years past. The PDF format resembles the paper statements you receive in the mail, making them easy to read, print and file along with regular paper statements. You can even discontinue paper statements, a popular move not only for the environmentally conscious, but for the technically literate who are happy working with digital records. Transactions can also be filtered and output in a range of digital formats for Excel or other finance software.

Commonwealth also rates highly on security, especially since the introduction of tokens and its NetCode SMS service in mid-2007. These optional features are free and are employed for external payments and for changing your details. And if you’re concerned about security while out and about or travelling overseas, you can create additional logins with transaction restrictions. That way, even if the account is compromised, the impact is kept to a minimum.

Commonwealth also offers a Secure Internet Shopping feature, which functions through appropriate Commonwealth credit cards. This adds a security code to online transactions with participating retailers who use the MasterCard SecureCode and Verified by Visa programmes. Like many banks, Commonwealth also offers discounted security software, which is an often overlooked feature, but a good one.

As yet, there's no mobile banking, but Commonwealth is not alone in this regard. Overall the NetBank site is not going to win any awards for style, but it will service the needs of most online bankers and give added peace of mind through its SMS security.