Internet Finance

Background

In the late 1970’s home banking was the only way of offering financial products without the customer being present at the banking hall (Xu, Wikes, & Shah., 2006, p. 19). Financial institutions call this service home banking; however banks offer this service through phones.

Banking customers were able to transfer money, pay their invoices or check their account credit through touch-tone telephone while they were at home. New software was created that permitted connecting customer to the bank through a dial-up connection. Although in the late 1980s this service was not very popular for several reasons. First, home banking was only allowed for some services agreed by the bank. Second, this new service needed an important investment in technology, and only few financial institutions could afford this cost.