The company behind Europe's first full-service Internet bank has announced a £38m cash injection and plans for further online financial services.

Dublin-based Enba said on Wednesday the official launch of its first-e bank could come as early as next week.

The bank will offer a 5.75% gross interest rate. Current accounts, debit cards, cheque books and free use of other banks' cash machines would soon be available.

Customers of the UK service would be able to check balances, see statements and make transfers through their Web browsers. German, French, Spanish and Italian localised versions will be rolled out over the next two years.

Lower costs than the High Street

Enba's chief executive Gerhard Huber told BBC News Online that first-e had a big advantage over High Street banks moving online: "They are going to continue to have bricks and mortar, the physical channels, telephone banking and now online developments, so they are just adding more costs to their existing structure," he said.

In contrast, first-e would have no physical branches so its overheads and staffing levels would be low, he explained, and it would be outsourcing much of its work, exploiting overcapacity in the systems of the clearing banks.

Therefore first-e would also be able to beat the High Street banks in terms of lower charges and better rates for customers: "If I was in their situation, I'd be thinking long and hard about cannibalising myself. If you have say 3m customers, it's not that easy to raise your savings rates overnight for all of them, so they're looking at a multichannel approach.

"But they still don't have our flexibility, our "time to market" is quicker and we can outpace them."

Investors queuing up

Mr Huber said he had chosen three new investors in Enba from 10 queuing up for an interest in the company. The three are Morgan Stanley & Co International, part of the US financial services firm, Capital Z, the world's largest financial services-focused private equity fund and CGU, the UK's biggest life and general assurance group.

Enba's original investors last December - Intel, Apax Partners, Aureus AG, Invision AG and Vertex - also contributed to this second round of funding.

Enba will be the holding company for four online ventures. As well as first-e, there is factor-e, providing white-label Net-based financial services and products for other businesses to re-brand. first-e capital will sell investment products such as Isas from later this year. Finally, Xeneration will launch by March next year offering comparison financial services shopping - such as finding you the best mortgage offer.

Target of 200,000 customers

The target of first-e's managing director, Xavier Azalbert, is 200,000 customers by the end of next year. The Web interface will give people an overview of their accounts and recent transactions on their home page.

A second version being prepared will allow drag-and-drop of shares bought through the brokerage service into portfolio baskets that give a clear picture of how the equities are faring.