A Comparative Study of Internet Banking in Pakistan.

Presented by Nabil Ur Rehman Siddiqui (2210)

Introduction

Almost every industry, now a day is discovering that innovations one after the other are resulting in losing their position of competitive advantage. Similarly, Internet banking is now must have for any bank which want to survive in this era of technology. Therefore banks are now increasingly moving toward the Internet Banking to enhance their routine work and give better services to satisfy the requirements of the customers. Internet banking makes customers to conduct certain dealings with bank (e.g. Bill payment, funds transfers, checking balances etc.) Anytime and reducing the visits to bank physically. This resulted in providing facilities to their customers and eventually lowering the cost to the bank and making a situation in which both bank and their customers wins. (Nath et al., 2001)

Statement of the Problem

Earlier many studies have been done on internet banking services using several models which were generated by researchers for evaluating the Users acceptance, Customer perspectives and preference, A comparative study1 , which was aimed to find out best internet banking service provider in Thailand which identified Thai Farmers Bank was providing best internet banking services and awareness level among users was found to be low. In another comparative study2, the behavior of users and non-users of internet banking in Portuguese was examined and found that users expressed positive word of mouth and were very much satisfied by internet banking services. In best of my knowledge, there hasnt been any comparative study in Pakistan for the users of internet banking which aims to identify premium Internet banking services provider among the banks and to identify features which are mostly utilized along with the level of awareness.

Objective & Research Questions of the Study

This comparative study will help us to find answers to these questions stated below and make recommendations at the end of the research for current and future internet-based banking customers. The findings and recommendations will also help the banks in providing better Internet Banking services for their customers.
Which banks are providing premium Internet Banking Services in Pakistan? What is the awareness level about the Internet Banking provided by their respective banks? Which Features of Internet Banking are mostly utilized by the customers?

Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is to investigate, the users and non-users of internet banking who are holding a conventional banking account in any bank with in Pakistan. The findings from the study will benefit current and future internet-based banking customers. It will also benefit the banks in providing better Internet Banking services for their customers in Pakistan.

Literature Review
Researcher
Ongkasuwan et al., (2002)

Topic
A Comparative Study of Internet Banking in Thailand

Methodology
Survey questionnaire

Findings
The Results showed that awareness of Internet Banking was very low. Thai Farmers Bank (TFB) was found to be number one Internet Bank in Thailand.

Hamid et al., (2007)

A comparative analysis of internet banking in Malaysia and Thailand.

Qualitative Research

They concluded in their study that Malaysian banks were much better than Thailand banks in providing Internet Banking services. They recommended in the end that role of government should be more in future for the enhancement of Internet banking activities.

Literature Review
Researcher
Arnaboldi et al., (2008)

Topic
Internet Banking in Europe: a comparative analysis.

Methodology
Fuzzy cluster analysis

Findings
The findings of their research were banks which are providing Internet Banking holds some competitive edge over others and as the technology is getting better so as internet banking. By using fuzzy cluster analysis it was discovered that both model of pure IB and one which uses following click & mortar model were very similar. The result showed that user of internet banking which were satisfied by internet banking services expressed positive word of mouth about internet banking.

Joa et al., (2011)

A comparison of users and non-users of banking self-service technology in Portugal.

Survey questionnaire

Methodology
Research Approach Research Design Sampling technique Quantitative Descriptive studies Stratified (Random) Sampling

Sample Size
Data Collection Technique Data Collection Instrument Instrument Validity Statistical Technique

488 respondents
Primary Data through Online Survey Structured Questionnaire Expert Opinion Descriptive Analysis

Findings
Premium Internet banking Service providers

Findings

Findings

Recommendations

Since the services which is mostly being utilized include Viewing of the account information and downloading the account statement therefore the downloading and retrieving of data should be made faster for the users of Internet Banking. Banks which have not yet start or banks which are not providing mostly utilized Internet Banking services identified from this survey research should start providing these mostly utilized services.

Banks should provide the information what a person should do in case of any fraud or misuse of account.
Effective Demo account should be made available for the users which will help them to get familiarize with the services offered by Internet Banking. Banking personnel should inform the customers about the level of security which has been implemented by bank to develop the confidence and trust of their customers. Banks can provide a feedback from for the customer where the users of internet banking will give their suggestions for improvement of the service which is being provided.

Future Research Recommendation

Since internet banking has not reached a state of saturation and use of Internet Banking is still about to be prevalent in Pakistan and the mostly the respondents of this survey where residents of major cities of Pakistan. It is hopeful that in the coming years more users would experience the internet banking in Pakistan that would give researchers larger sample size and in turn would give more reliable analysis. In future it is expected that new complexities and problem will emerge as technology is evolving continuously.

Thank You