Halifax, the British mortgage bank, today opened the telephone bit of its new Internet banking business IF.com (it stands for Intelligent Finance - yes, really), only two and half months late.

And still there is no sign of the IF.com's Internet facilities springing into action. Halifax pulled IF.com's launch, less than 24 hours before the bank was due to open on 14 July. It cited software-related perfomance issues, in other words it was unworkably slow with as few as 500 people using the site simultaneously.

Halifax then missed its self-imposed end-of-August deadline to get If.com operational. At least the company avoided the fuss and nonsense, surrounding the launches of rival Internet banks, such as Egg, Smile and Cahoot, all of which experienced embarrassing teething troubles. ®

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