The Social Impacts of Electronic Funds Transfer

The contents of this paper represent selected elements of a technology assessment, carried out by Arthur D. Little, Inc., for the National Science Foundation, of electronics funds transfer (EFT). After a brief placement of EFT into historical perspective, the paper describes what EFT is and what it does. Some EFT experiments and their results are discussed. A section on a spectrum of means by which EFT may be introduced is followed by the identification of some impacts that EFT might have on five areas of our society: the financial industry, privacy, loans and credit, security, and the family.