E-Commerce in the Financial Services Industry

Abstract

The financial services industry consists of retail financial services such as retail banking, consumer lending and mortgage banking, insurance (life, health, property) and financial markets. Each of these sectors has seen tremendous growth in the services and products delivered over public internetworks such as the Internet. The recent signing into law (November 1999) of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in the U.S. has enabled firms such as retail banks to provide an unprecedented array of financial services. As competition within the industry increases, firms of all sizes are looking to achieve competitive advantage through Electronic Commerce (EC). According to a recent study by the Securities Industry Association and the TowerGroup, securities firms in North America spent $3.9 billion on Internet-related information technology (21% of their total IT spending) in 1998, and this is expected to double by 2002 (SIA, 1999).