Banking on the Internet and its applications

As the Internet becomes one of the most important communication networks in the world, many financial institutions (FIs) have developed their home pages to introduce their products and services to the public on the World Wide Web. However, many large banks do not provide online Internet services where sensitive and confidential information is involved mainly for security reasons. Although security issues seem to be a concern for the large banks, the picture is different for the smaller ones. Many small financial institutions offer online services which include opening new accounts and processing loan applications. These institutions also plan to add new services to their Internet offerings such as downloading information including electronic cash onto a smart card. The paper considers how, in general, small FIs are ahead of the big ones in using the network power of the Internet as a tool for business expansion