At the top of the website charts is UBS with 84 out of 100 points. Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank tie for the second spot at 83 points followed by Credit Suisse in fourth place with 82 points. Numbers five, six, seven and eight are Banque Pictet, Barclays, Crédit Agricole and Julius Baer. The top ten is rounded out by Société Générale and RBC in joint ninth place.

The 2011 report finds that compared to the 2009 survey the overall quality of private banking websites has not improved saying that “less than half of the banks have mastered the basic requirements for a private banking website and, in particular, shortcomings in website content are seriously damaging the chances of winning clients online.”

The report found that in regards to user-unfriendly navigation and structure only a third of the providers achieved a decent standard of usability for their websites. A key problem was found to be the search function with 60 per cent of the banks unable to provide the user with relevant search results for such important terms as “assets under management” or “headquarters”.

In addition to this there is a lack of critical information for clients, says the report, which notes that while the majority of the private banking websites are strong on soft data, such as the description of services offered and the investment process, they have a serious lack of the hard data. This is particularly true of basic details, says the report, such as the amount of assets under management and the minimum investment sum, which are missing on almost half of private banking websites. Furthermore, comprehensive data on costs and performance are disclosed only on a few websites, found the report.

”Potential clients aren’t finding what really matters to them on private banking websites,” said Steffen Binder, research director of MyPrivateBanking. “Many banks love to show flashy presentations of the bank’s venerable past. However, they avoid displaying critically important information such as fees and portfolio performance,” he said.

The strong point of most of the analyzed websites is the contact section, with nine out of ten websites offering various means of contacts, which the user can find easily. However, integration of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter on private banks' websites is still very weak, as is the integration of interactive tools, says the report.

“Banks that still believe more in the power of marble halls and exclusive events, and regard online channels as merely 'nice to have' and a playground for gilded youth, will have a rude awakening,” said Christian Nolterieke, managing director of MyPrivateBanking, summing up what he views as the likely consequences for wealth managers of neglecting the internet.

Regionally, European private banks lead in terms of online presence with only two of the 15 websites of non-European providers surveyed making it into the top 10.

The 40 analyzed websites are: ABN Amro, ANZ, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Bank of NY Mellon, Banque Pictet, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Clariden Leu, Coutts & Co, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, Erste, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, ING Groep, Itau Private Bank, J.P. Morgan, Julius Bär, Kleinwort Benson, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Lombard Odier, Macquarie, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nordea, RBS Coutts, Rothschild, Royal Bank of Canada, Sal. Oppenheim, Santander, SEB, Societe General, Standard Chartered, U. S. Trust, UBS, Vontobel, Wells Fargo.