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Five of Canada's largest banks are up in arms after receiving a failing grade for Internet awareness among their branch employees.

In their new book entitled Canadian Money Management Online, co-authors Rick Broadhead and Jim Carroll -- considered notable Internet authorities in Canada -- gave the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Canada, and Toronto-Dominion Bank an F grade because branch employees didn't know their bank's Web site address.

In fact, only Canada Trust obtained a passing grade (see graphic).

"The results are nothing short of dismal," Broadhead and Carroll's book states.

They polled 120 branches, six branches of each bank, and asked the person answering the phone "What is the address of your bank's Web site?"

"We went out of our way to give each branch a chance to answer our question," the authors wrote. "For example, when the person answering the telephone was not able to provide us with the bank's Web site address, we asked if anyone else in the branch might have the information."

Sample responses from the Royal Bank include: "Is it on the west side, east side, or north or south?" and "I've never heard of such a thing."

CIBC employees said: "Run that by me again" and "We're not on it yet because we haven't worked out the security code."

Someone at a TD Bank branch responded: "Branches don't normally know that stuff" and "The person who would know is out of the office right now."

Similar responses were given by Scotia Bank, Canada Trust and Bank of Montreal.

Nevertheless, Canada Trust scored the highest grade.

"Right from the inception of launching Internet services at Canada Trust, we've taken the time to let the branches know and tell them what the address is and invite them to go see it for themselves," said Chuck Hounsell, vice-president, distribution development, Canada Trust, in London, Ont.

"We even sent around circulars for people without Web browsing capabilities to show them what things look like."

But the other five banks zealously protest the study. They said it's not the tellers' job to give out information on the bank's Web site.

"Should most Royal Bank employees know that www.royalbank.com (is our address)? We'd hope so. But that's not really their job," said Dan Maceluch, manager, corporate media relations, Royal Bank, in an interview.

"Their job is to service the customer, not to tell them the Internet site address. Their job isn't to be a traffic cop for the Internet."

Maceluch accused Broadhead and Carroll of going "too far" with their study.

"I think they have gone way too far, have gone beyond the bounds of decency, and all they are trying to do is drum up business for their book," he said.

In their book, Broadhead and Carroll write: "It's only natural to expect the level of awareness among front-line bank employees to be quite high -- after all, this is where most interaction with customers takes place." In an interview, the TD Bank said Internet users represent a different breed of bank customer. It doesn't buy the authors' argument about front-line staff.

"That's total B.S. The reason that we're doing this is that customers are increasingly not going to branches," said David Livingston, senior vice-president, card and direct services division, TD Bank. "Customers likely to use the Internet probably haven't been to a branch in years."

Livingston said Internet users are "not going to be walking over to a local branch and asking 'What's your Internet address?' That's not the way they deal," he said.

"We're talking about a virtual bank here, and alternatives to branches. So why would we be concentrating all of the knowledge about everything that's going on into the place that's really representing an alternative to the branch?"

Carroll adamantly disagrees.

"Our whole point is everybody is running around saying 'We're going to build virtual banks and we're going to do all of these wonderful electronic things', but my gosh if it's that important, don't you think everybody should be aware of the fundamental method of how to get there?" he said when contacted by Computing Canada.

"I don't agree with the banks," Carroll said. "I think that if the future of the world is electronic banking, virtual banking and mbanx and the times they are a changing, then my gosh the staff throughout the organization should know where the hell it's going to occur and should know the Web address as a result."

Broadhead said he doesn't believe front-line staff should be out of the loop either. They need to be Internet-literate if their employers are making a push with Internet services, he said.

"If you're going to invest in a technology you have got to be able to communicate the benefits to your customers," he said in an interview.

In a second survey, Broadhead and Carroll sent a "typical" customer query to each bank via e-mail, using the e-mail address found on each bank's Web site. All queries were sent out at 10:32 on a Friday morning.

Canada Trust received an A+ for responding in just 44 minutes. The Bank of Nova Scotia responded in about four hours, TD Bank the next day, Bank of Montreal six business days later, and the Royal Bank 17 business days later. "That's unacceptable, no question," said the Royal Bank's Maceluch. "However, that was one request, and I think it was really irresponsible of those two authors .... I think is was really irresponsible to use one example and cite that so blatantly.

"That's no way indicative of the level of service we can provide on the Internet."

He said the Royal Bank has a new Web page, and a policy to respond to e-mails within two business days.

Canada Trust long ago, it said, set aside a group for dealing with e-mail requests.

"We even have an established e-mail group who's focus is dealing with e-mails from customers," said Canada Trust's Hounsell.

However, Broadhead said the blame shouldn't lie with branch employees, but with company executives.

"It's the responsibility of senior management to make employees aware of initiatives that are on-going within the branches," Broadhead said.

A lack of knowledge when it comes to the Internet isn't limited to the financial industry, however. It's a Canada-wide problem in all industries, he said.

Broadhead said there's a "lack of senior management involvement. Somebody forgot to tell our employees that we're on the Internet."