MICROSOFT is to launch an Internet banking site in partnership with up to four British banks.

The move represents an attempt by the software giant to grab a share of an increasingly popular market. While the big four British clearing banks - Barclays, NatWest, Lloyds TSB and HSBC - are introducing their own Net banking services, Microsoft will team up with smaller banks and is understood to be negotiating with Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Co-operative Bank.The Finance Channel, the site_s working title, will become part of the Microsoft Network . Any user will find The Finance Channel on MSN_s home page with a list of links to banking services. The relationship between the banks and Microsoft is likely to be similar to that with supermarkets such as Tesco, backed by Royal Bank of Scotland, and Sainsbury, backed by Bank of Scotland. Online banking is a huge growth area in both Britain and America. It is expected that there will be about 2.5m Net bank users by 2002 in Britain alone, with a figure of about five times that likely in America.