Bankwest has identified a small group in the community, 5.7 per cent of Gen Ys, who use the internet for banking several times a day. It also found that evening is the most popular time for online banking. It can't be long before consumer groups start demanding banks do something to help people who have become addicted to their banking apps.Bankwest's Online Transactions Report, prepared by CoreData, reveals that 81 per cent of Australians are frequent online banking users. In the case of Gen Y, the internet is the preferred channel for "typical banking transactions" 94 per cent of the time. For Gen X, it is 95 per cent of the time. More surprising is the lingering attachment to branches. Baby boomers said the branch was the preferred channel for "typical banking transactions" 40 per cent of the time. Sadly, the report doesn't say what they're doing in there.Gen Y respondents said the branch was their preferred channel 23 per cent of the time, and, for Gen X, it was 24 per cent of the time.The research confirms the point often made by bankers that consumers like to take a multi-channel approach to their banking and that branches are still important.It also confirmed that banking is increasingly something that people do while they are doing something else. Close to one in four (23.5 per cent) said they often or almost always multi-task while banking (the other task is usually watching television) and another 22.8 per cent said they multi-task sometimes.