Introduction

• Author: Lloyd G. Waller/Corin Bailey/Stephen Johnson
• Profession: Senior Lecturer in Methodology and Political Sociology and Head/Chair of the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and Director of the Centre for Leadership and Governance, a research and policy unit within the Department of Government, UWI/Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies, ...
• Pages: 11-18

Introduction

Within the contemporary global environment, banks

around the world have been moving with the forces

of globalisation in an effort to capitalise on the merits of

liberalisation, the Internet, and computer technology as well

as the emergence and expansion of e-commerce (Ramayah,

Jantan, Noor, and Ling 2003; Sulaiman, Lim, and Wee 2005).

The fusion of retail banking and information technology, is

commonly referred to as electronic banking (e-banking) or

Internet banking (henceforth e-banking).



‘the automated delivery of new and traditional banking

products and services directly to customers through

electronic, interactive communication channels’ (Sathye



institutions to obtain banking information, and do business

transactions electronically using advanced information

and communication technologies such as a personal

computer or with the use of a hand-held device. In the last

decade, e-banking has helped to advance the symbiotic

relationship between banks and their customers, as they



indeed, changed the mode of operation for both banks

and customers. Previously, the banking landscape was

characterised by traditional, face-to-face banking. Customers

had no alternative but to visit physical structures plagued by



had to be conducted during business hours (Kuo 2010;

Laforet and Li 2005; Sathye 1999; Sulaiman et al. 2005).

Today, through e-banking, banking is done anytime, all the

time, and in real time.