Challenges of the "E-Banking Revolution"

• Author: Saleh M. Nsouli and Andrea Schaechter
• Position: Deputy Director in the IMF Institute/Economist in the IMF's Monetary and Exchange Affairs Department

Electronic banking is the wave of the future. It provides enormous benefits to consumers in terms of the ease and cost of transactions. But it also poses new challenges for country authorities in regulating and supervising the financial system and in designing and implementing macroeconomic policy.

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Electronic banking has been around for some time in the form of automatic teller machines and telephone transactions. More recently, it has been transformed by the Internet, a new delivery channel for banking services that benefits both customers and banks. Access is fast, convenient, and available around the clock, whatever the customer's location (see illustration above). Plus, banks can provide services more efficiently and at substantially lower costs. For example, a typical customer transaction costing about $1 in a traditional "brick and mortar" bank branch or $0.60 through a phone call costs only about $0.02 online.

Electronic banking also makes it easier for customers to compare banks' services and products, can increase competition among banks, and allows banks to penetrate new markets and thus expand their geographical reach. Some even see electronic banking as an opportunity for countries with underdeveloped financial systems to leapfrog developmental stages. Customers in such countries can access services more easily from banks abroad and through wireless communication systems, which are developing more rapidly than traditional "wired" communication networks.

The flip side of this technological boom is that electronic banking is not only susceptible to, but may exacerbate, some of the same risks-particularly governance, legal, operational, and reputational-inherent in traditional banking. In addition, it poses new challenges. In response, many national regulators have already modified their regulations to achieve their main objectives: ensuring the safety and soundness of the domestic banking system, promoting market discipline, and protecting customer rights and the public trust in the banking system. Policymakers are also becoming increasingly aware of the greater potential impact of macroeconomic policy on capital movements.

Trends in electronic banking

Internet banking is gaining ground. Banks increasingly operate websites through which customers are able not only to inquire about account balances and interest and exchange rates but also to conduct a range of transactions. Unfortunately, data on Internet banking are scarce, and differences in definitions make cross-country comparisons difficult. Even so, one finds that Internet banking is particularly widespread in Austria, Korea, the Scandinavian countries, Singapore, Spain, and Switzerland, where more than 75 percent of all banks offer such services (see chart). The Scandinavian countries have the largest number of Internet users, with up to one-third of bank customers in Finland and Sweden taking advantage of e-banking.

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In the United States, Internet banking is still concentrated in the largest banks. In mid-2001, 44 percent of national banks maintained transactional websites, almost double the number in the third quarter of 1999. These banks account for over 90 percent of national banking system assets. The larger banks tend to offer a wider array of electronic banking services, including loan applications and brokerage services. While most U.S. consumers have accounts with banks that offer Internet services, only about 6 percent of them use these services.

To date, most banks have combined the new electronic delivery channels with traditional brick and mortar branches ("brick and click" banks), but a small number have emerged that offer their products and services predominantly...