Internetworking - Net banks nothing to smile at.

Internet bank Smile is suffering teething troubles with its systems, while rival Egg still hasn't cracked its own problems.

An attempt to set up a current account with Smile, part of Co-operative Bank, took several phone calls to complete. A similar request to Egg, which is a division of Prudential, received no reply within seven days, although both banks promise near-instant approvals through the web.

Smile's systems bounced the applicant's address because the request omitted the London suburb - a line rarely used, but part of the official address. In a second test a few days later, this problem appeared to have been corrected.

Co-operative was one of the first banks to offer Net access to its accounts, and Smile's technology is based on this system. However, account applications were previously entered by bank staff rather than applicants.

Both Smile and Egg also refused web-based requests for account information.Egg said this problem, which lasted for an hour last Sunday, was down to First Data Resources, which handles the company's credit card information.

'Launching a full-service bank on the Net is technically demanding, and we have encountered some minor difficulties,' said a Co-operative spokesman.