This chapter explores the recent e-banking application and development issues, focusing on two main areas: (1) the small to medium sized banks in remote rural areas, and (2) a comparative investigation to examine how different cultural, economic, and political factors influence the e-banking systems in different nations. Given the conditions with less population and financial resources, the research objective of the first section is to investigate how smaller and community banks located in rural areas have attempted to catch up their counterparts in larger cities in terms of the application of e-banking, focusing on emerging issues and challenges, such as Internet accessibility, culture, and tradition playing a vital role in the development of e-banking industry among different nations.
Top1. Introduction
Electronic finance has been continuously growing as a new industry during the last decade. The banking industry has led this trend in recent years, and called e-banking referring to all banking transactions completing through internet applications (Boss, et al., 2000; Costanzo, 2000; Ebling, 2001; Feinman, et al., 1999). E-Banking has revolutionized the way business is transacted by globalizing the business enterprise. All businesses, including small and medium sized firms, no matter their geographical locations, are all beneficiaries of e-banking. It encompasses all kind of commercial transaction that is conducted on an electronic medium, mostly through the Internet. It allows companies to make new business contacts from different global business alliance, test new products and services, and make market research and other enquiries all at a minimal cost both financial and otherwise (Barnes & Corbitt, 2003; Laukkanen & Lauronen, 2005). E-banking services currently available include online inquiry, e-payments, e-transfer, online 24/7 banking services greatly reduce the labor cost, extend the service edge, and increase the banking efficiency and effectiveness (Gonzalez et al., 2008; Smith, 2008). In recent years, mobile banking service is emerging as another new direction of electronic banking (Gerpott & Kornmeier, 2009). Mobile banking (M-banking) is that customers use wireless devices (cell phone, PDA, laptop, etc.) to access the internet and conduct the online services at any time from any place. M-banking is viewed as a powerful tool to complement regular e-banking with new developed services (Scornavacca & Hoehle, 2007).
While the e-banking application has advanced significantly during recent years, especially in the big cities among developed nations, in comparison, the development of e-banking application has been far behind in many rural areas (within the developed nations), and in most developing nations, although many banks in those areas and nations have been implementing E-banking during recent years. Therefore, the primary purpose of this chapter is to promote and disseminate research and studies in the e-banking application and development in the rural areas and those in emerging developing nations.
In the following discussion, the following section presents a literature review about the recent e-banking application and development in rural areas and the current issues and challenges facing the e-banking industry in these emerging nations. Section three addresses the major e-banking issues and challenges for the banks in the rural less-populated areas. Following section describes a comparative study investigating the issues in the current e-banking services in those emerging nations under different cultures and traditions. Finally, the last section discusses the potential research directions for the e-banking industry in the rural areas and those emerging nations respectively.