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TELECOMWORLDWIRE-11 August 2000-UK lags behind Europe in online share trading (C)1994-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com Despite the assumption that the UK is ahead of the rest of Europe in 'playing' the stockmarket, in the sector of online share dealing the UK is apparently some way behind the continent. According to a report by investment bankers J.P. Morgan, within three years 17m people in Europe will be trading shares on the Internet, but less than 2m of these will be in the UK, even though London is Europe's biggest stock market and one-third of all European shareholders are British. There are currently 300,000 people in Britain who have accounts with Internet stockbrokers, while over 1.5m Germans have online accounts. France and Italy are also ahead of the UK, reported the BBC. Hindering UK online investors is the fact that they still have to fill in paper forms to transfer shares when buying or selling. Another explanation is that the advent of Internet share dealing came just as many European countries were undergoing a wave of privatisation, increasing the number of shareholders, said the report. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))