Critical analysis of the impact of E-banking on the customers of the banking sector in the United Kingdom and their future behaviour
Chapter 1-Introduction
1.1 Internet Banking in the United Kingdom and Europe
In the United Kingdom, Internet banking services are available and provided by twelve Internet banking services providers. The Egg, for example, is an Internet banking service provider (exclude current account features) that has more than 150,000 customers visited their web site during October 1998 to July 1999. The Internet banking services providers in the U.K. have encountered an increasing demand for cross boarder payment transactions for smaller amount of cash and payment over the Internet. Many banks continue to develop and launch new banking services on the Internet in order to satisfy and meet their Internet-based customer requirements in term of time, ease of use, security and privacy in the U.K. (Birch and Young, 1997; Mathew and Dagi, 1996; Gandy and Brierley, 1997).
In June 1999, the U.K. and eight other western European countries: France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Luxembourg, and Scandinavia have become leading nations in providing Internet banking services in Europe.
Germany also has been rated as the nation that has the highest number of Internet banking services providers in Europe (BlueSky International Marketing, 1999). Although the UK has smaller number of Internet banking sites on the Internet than in Germany, but it has been rated as the highest quality and functionality at no additional charges to their customers in Europe. However, there are two banks in the U.K. that charge additional fees for Internet banking services:
(1) Natwest has a one-time charge of 30 pounds per customer, a ...