Calcutta may still be lagging behind Hyderabad as a preferred destination for tech giants, but it has more people accessing banking services online than the south Indian city.

A recent study by the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) shows Calcutta beaten in the number of online banking users by Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, but scoring over Pune, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and Ahmedabad (see box) in the click count.

But among the states, West Bengal ranks sixth, behind Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

City bankers say the trend is fast growing in Calcutta.

?The online banking scene is very encouraging here,? says Sumit Ghosh, assistant general manager, personal banking business unit of State Bank of India. ?People are slowly becoming accustomed to the advantages of online banking.?

The problem, Ghosh feels, is the lack of Internet access. ?The number of households and offices with Internet connection is still not comparable to some of the metros.?

Agrees Kakoli Mazumder, vice-president operations, eastern zone of UTI Bank: ?Definitely there is greater awareness today and Internet banking in the city is on the rise. Mostly, we see customers making bill payments and transferring funds online.?

The biggest hurdle for users shying away from conducting banking transactions over the Internet, says the IAMAI study, is security concerns (43 per cent), followed closely by the desire to meet banking officials face-to-face (39 per cent). ?Concerns about password hacking and identity theft are largely restricted to senior citizens. The younger generation, which forms the bulk of our online users, seems more comfortable,? Mazumder adds.

Online banking, however, still has some way to go in India, with only an estimated 4.6 million users banking online currently among the Internet population of nearly 38.5 million.