Adoption of e-banking in Bangladesh: Evolution, status and prospects

Electronic banking (e-banking) is the next-generation banking that electronically delivers a wide range of banking services where the physical presence of the customer at the bank premises is not required. With the advent of Internet connectivity and a number of security tools of e-commerce, the penetration of e-banking is increasing most of the developing countries, e.g., Bangladesh. Although there are different forms of e-banking, including Internet banking, telephone banking, mobile phone or Short Message Service (SMS) banking and Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) banking; Internet banking is the most cost-effective form of e-banking. The number of Internet users is geometrically increasing in Bangladesh. Moreover, the banks have started to invest in e-banking, specially in Internet banking. Although, Internet banking has immense potential in Bangladesh, it fails to attract the customers in general. In this paper, by carrying out an on-line survey, we study the existing e-banking facilities of Bangladesh, the use of this e-banking services and the challenges that need to be addressed for full-scale deployment of e-banking. By analyzing survey data we have identified the key reasons behind the slow spread out of e-banking services, and also prepared a number of recommendations to overcome the present hindrances.