The Co-operative Bank and Halifax are at the front of the pack when it comes to engaging prospects online. That’s according to a study released by Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems.

It found that the Co-operative Bank’s public site performed best in a large-scale user test of bank marketing sites, while Halifax was the top site in a companion technical quality analysis measuring site reliability and responsiveness. The results, available in the Keynote 2011 UK Banking Prospects Study, were obtained between 19 September and 18 October. The other sites included in the study were Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS and Santander.

“Consumers shopping for a new bank use marketing sites both to find the right product and to validate the bank,” says Malcolm Otter, director of consulting at Keynote Systems EMEA. “Positive experiences often lead to the consumer opening an account through the site. However, certain negative experiences we’ve identified not only dissuade the prospect from opening an account then and there, but result in the prospect becoming less receptive to future offers from the bank.”

“Trending results over five years, Keynote has found most banks have become more proficient in obtaining positive business outcomes from their sites, but some banks are going backwards,” Otter continues. “From a technical perspective, the best sites aren’t necessarily the ones that are fastest on average. Rather, the best sites are consistently fast and avoid prolonged downtime. Halifax’s site was not only fast, it was consistently fast, a factor that led to its top rating for technical quality.”

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