Online visits to U.K., French and German financial news sites in September during the height of the global financial crisis saw a significant increase in traffic, according to comScore World Metrix.

“Because of the immediacy in reporting real-time fluctuations in the financial markets, Europeans have become increasingly reliant on financial news Web sites for the most up-to-the minute information,” said Herve Le Jouan, Managing Director, comScore Europe.

“With European and world markets exhibiting such volatility, the Internet has proven itself to be the go-to resource for those with a vested interest in the markets, as well as concerned consumers generally.”

The financial news category grew 10 percent to 8.8 million visitors in September 2008 from the previous month. The fastest gaining site, Guardian Business, had a 141 percent increase to 374,000 visitors, followed by Sky Money (up 122%), CNN Money (up 103%) and Bloomberg.com (up 60%). BBC News, the largest site in the category, grew 51 percent to 2.5 million visitors, a net increase of 800,000 visitors compared to the previous month.

In France, the financial news category grew 9 percent to 6.4 million visitors in September versus August and is up 7 percent compared to a year ago. The fastest gaining site was Boursier.com, which had a 107 percent increase over August with 526,000 unique visitors, followed by Lexpansion.com (up 97%), Capital Magazin (up 96%) and Lemoneymag.fr (up 90%).

In Germany, the financial news category grew at a slightly slower rate of 3 percent to 4.9 million visitors in September. The fastest gaining site was Manager-Magazin.de, which saw its audience increase 39 percent to 471,000 visitors, followed by AOL Money & Finance (up35%), Finanztreff.de (up34%) and T-Online.de Finance (up 29%).

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