Global E-Banking Trends: Evolution, Challenges and Opportunities

The traditional mode of delivering products and services by banks to the consumers' is through a single distribution channel and that is physical bank branches. Financial services industry is metamorphosing due to the advent of internet, rapid technological evolutions, deregulation, globalization as well as the impact of changing competitive and regulatory forces. In order to cope to the quick changes in the business scenario, banks started to rely on distribution channels as an alternative strategy for differentiation and gaining further competitive advantage. The abovementioned paved way for the development of the ebanking phenomena. This chapter attempts to provide a comprehensive explanation of what ebanking is, the evolution of ebanking, existing trends of ebanking in developed, developing and newly industrialized nations, future directions for further possible research and concluding remarks. The content provided in this chapter would be useful for existing and potential banks to better understand the global ebanking trends and thus aid in the effective formulation of channel management strategies and reap the benefits out of it.