Impact Of Technology In Banking Sector Information Technology Essay

Banking can simply expressed as the business of keeping, lending, exchanging and issuing money [1] The Key business priorities of the banking and financial services industry are Efficiency, Growth and Resilience. The technology helps the sector to fulfill the requirements of the business priority areas.

Implementation of information technology began in right earnest in the sector. Starting from back office automation, which was aimed largely at processing of voluminous data and automation of cheque clearing operations; the technology moved to the front desk in the form of total branch automation.

At the same time, the development in communication technologies made technology implementation more widespread and it became cost effective to network bank branches. Investments in information technology also helped cut down operational costs drastically.

Technology means application of knowledge or a technical process method or emerged as powerful tool to reduce operating costs, making it viable for financial institution to expand into rural and low income areas. Technology plays an important role in Financial Services for monitoring and controlling of their services; currently some of the technology use by financial institutions (FSIs)

These help FSIs to provide efficient, better customer service, greater product variety, shorter response time, enhanced product quality and better customization of products and services.

There are about 4 billion unbanked people in the world which is more than two third of the population of low and middle income countries[2] financial institution such as commercial bank are still unable to reach poor population, because of high cost for building and maintain branch network and developing. Pakistan is also 5th largest country in-terms of using mobile phone, and around 95 million mobile users including the remote mountains areas (Gilgit , Baltistatan) compared to 26 million banking accounts which indicate inherent position for mobile banking in Pakistan [2]

Mobile banking (also known as M-Banking,, SMS Banking etc.) is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions, payments, credit applications etc. via a mobile device such as a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). The earliest mobile banking services were offered via SMS. [1]. Keeping in view of increased mobile users , the M-banking will be considered as one of cheapest , fast, reliable, secure delivery channel for banking industry despite the key advantage of the M-Banking Technology is still new and there are many framework, model and solution purposed different authors, my research is based on internet and mobile banking.

The rest of the paper is organized in following sections: section 2 describes the Literature Review which analyzes and summarizes the published knowledge, section 3 gives the Critical Evaluation, section 4 concludes with Conclusion and Future Work.

2. Literature Review

In this section author has tried to review technology used by banking sector and its impact.

The authors Robert, et.al. [3], in their research paper discusses the role of Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the economic development of developing countries. The industry has been recognized worldwide especially after Nobel peace prize was awarded to the Grameen bank and its founder Muhammad Younas in 2006. However, the industry faces many challenges such as: operational efficiency, risk mitigation, sustainability and growth; whereas with the help of ITC the banks can cope with all these challenges.

The strength of this research paper is its primary focus of microfinance industry and impact of ICT in an area where limited research material is available. The author suggests more future research in this field. Author gives direction for providing microfinance technology and stakeholder ecosystem framework. ,The major focus is to ask research questions that can be answered in the context of microfinance and ecosystem framework for better know how of ITC impact, different level of stakeholder as well as customer level. ICTs play a role to reduce distance barrier particularly in rural areas that allow MFIs to provide secure services(i.e. money transfer, bills payment, deposit, shopping, alleviate security concerns) to the customer by using IT based delivery channels such as M-banking and Internet banking. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) helps Microfinance loan officer in quick authorization of the loan process, and using analytical tools which help in greater understanding of market risk and potential customer.

Microfinance Institution level: Due to lack of IT skill, workers and budget constrains MFIs are always reluctant to use ICT, despite the fact that the proper MIS provide quick information for their efficient operation and decision making.

Donor level: Using proper Management information system increase trust amongst donors

Industry level: IT can also help for increase delivery channel.

With limited budget, lack of IT skills, poor customer, remote areas with Infrastructure issues which are required for ITC, the author does not provide a direction on how to implement ITC in MFIs

Author Daniela Harangues [4], explains in his study that “the world without bank is not possible”.

In general economy the financial flow is supported by the bank and in today’s digital economy the financial flow is possible through IT banking system. Banks use IT to consolidate its position, customize services and adopt innovative strategies to capture new market opportunities and increase profit as well as enhancing banking process outsourcing(BPO).

The strength of paper is the focus of today’s global financial crisis specially in banking sector and explained that the banking should redefine their business model with emerging dimensions in banking sector and the digital economy while referring to the Romanian banking system.

The main area of Romanian banking is (Globalization, consolidation, deregulation,). Deregulation has opened new business opportunities using internet banking and global banking. With these products the banking industries may gain more momentum in the current circumstances and improve image of banking sector.

The IT banking systems has always been an attraction for new customer as it ensures efficient management in the shape of usual banking operation, internet banking, home banking or mobile banking play important role in digital economy in the age of Globalization. Due to digital economy the banking industry has regained success.

The limitation of this paper is that it does not respond to the situations of developing economies for developing countries.”All other world countries may use the model of Romanian banking system for their stability and prosperity”.

Author Aqeel Ahmed et.al [5] highlighted that financial industry is the heart of every robust economy. It is evident from current recession in UK and the use of Information and communication technology has provided new model for banking industry. The world economy has become global transaction of worth billions that takes place within second with the help of ICT globally. The author has used various research papers to identify the impact of E-banking on: Quality of banking services, Cost minimization, Revenue maximization, and Consumer behavior. The author has described 24/7 availability as main benefit of E-banking while complexity/inconvenience and security factor have been termed by the author as main drawback of E-banking.

Author has clearly identified some core issues related to E-banking with various authentic research papers. Author has also highlighted that role of IT is increasing exponentially every year in all developed and emerging countries. The author has found in some research papers that E-banking does not have any direct impact on profitability in US market but author has also found some research papers that in Acceding and Candidate Countries (ACCs) it has some impact on profitability of banks. Consumer seeks convenience, transactional efficiency, a choice of core banking and non-core banking products and prices. Internet has also increased customers sensitivity to fast customer service.

Author has not concluded his research to a logical conclusion and has not even discussed various issues identified.

The authors Xing Fang et.al [6], focuses his research paper about online authentication in banking process, which is the critical security concerned for the financial institutions. The author discusses various solutions which are available for solving security issue of online banking. The paper highlights the issue of existing online authentication solutions, of which one of the popular ones is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure [HTTPS). Instead of using flash driver for digital certificate (DC) the author has recommended phone mobile for (DC)

One of the strengths of the work the author is that he introduces new authentication protocol for online banking, by using mobile phone. According to this, key benefits of using mobile phone are securely store client digital certification, and transaction verification functionally to prevent fake transaction. Also, the author addresses three main issue for online banking: first how can we make sure the website that individual want to contact with is the accurate site, second how can we safeguard an individual’s credentials during their transmission and thirdly how can we judge that these credential are really from the source that the sender claims. The author also justifies his new solution by taking security and attacks analysis which cover, Mobile phone physical security analysis, mobile phone malware analysis, attach analysis either remote attack or local attack for stolen mobile phone.

Limitation: There are some necessary requirement first client should have a mobile phone with Bluetooth, also Trusted platform Module(TPM) a TPM is a microchip that is able to securely store authentication element such as encryption key and digital certification.

Authors Muhammad Hilmi Hasan et.al [7] in their research describe the importance of Mobile banking service due to increase number of the mobile user around the globe. Study shows that there were almost 3.3 billion mobile customers in 2007; the number is increasing day by day specially in developing countries. This will also increase the importance of the mobile banking which is easier to use and secure as compared to the internet banking. Authors focus area are the limitation of the SMS based banking system where notification of any type of transaction either from ATM, internet , for balance enquiry, fund transfer , manipulate bank account and credit card and utility bill payment. An informal receipt will be delivered to the user just for their own reference purpose and also avoid the fake transaction. The receipt can’t be used as a reference or proof for any formal business. This service is already available throw internet but required internet to do this.

Strength of this work is that it focuses on reducing the internet dependency for the formal receipt. Authors have introduced new Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)-based receipt system for format receipt in PDF format which can be used as proof for any business. The system is very simple as no additional user interface required, based on windows operating system and, wherever software such as, PHP program module, MSQL database is required, all these applications are easily available in the market. Limitation of the research is that authors have just highlighted the importance of the formal receipt and did not cover the security aspect of the mobile banking.

Fouzia Mousumi et.al [8], The authors have proposed push and pull services offering SMS Based M-banking system, for the Bangladesh banks. According to the authors, due to increased number of mobile phone customers in Bangladesh, which according to a survey has reached 44.46 mobile, mobile phone services are also available in remote mountain region like Chittagong hill. In the country, there are about 50% people living in poverty, therefore, these poor people can’t afforded internet facility. In other words, they always need cost effective, robust, flexible and secure banking service. Strength of this research work is that with the help of the purpose system many poor users can get services through (Push and Pull messages system). Push services are those which are sent by the bank to its registered customer. These services are provide information about Interest rate change update, any policy change, new product and branch opening, monthly details of account balance etc. Pull services are pay bills, fund transfer, and balance etc. The authors address some major challenges which are electricity failure, data failure due to the server failure. The purpose system is tested properly, author control each process area by different module , the module are , interface module, SMS technology adoption module ,SMS Banking registration module , PUSH PULL module.

The limitation of this research is how to avoid the fake transaction, security aspect are not completely discussed, also this service can be used in Microfinance industry because there are many Microfinance banks in Bangladesh and many poor customer can benefit

The Author’s Xiaoquan Gong et.al [9], research is focused on software development life cycle for the design and development and testing of the new proposed software which is specially design for fund investment analysis. The fund investment is method of investment a type of benefit sharing and risk sharing through the sale of fund share, also important part of any national economy.

Author’s strength of work is that it follows complete standard of software development life cycle for the development of new application for mobile users in order to get information about the analysis and review of the market through mobile phone.

The author first compares other existing technology like the SMS based mobile banking and the USSD based mobile banking and also finds the some limitations in each one.

The key limitation of author work is focus on particular area of fund investment analysis application.

The author Muhammad Reza Nami [10] is of the view that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the key factor in current and future development of the financial sector whereas internet banking and mobile(cell phone) banking is considered as new distribution channel, both channels help for the bank to reduce cost and saving time of transaction. Both are critical for banks customer and the infect the impact on economy globally. According to a survey, age group 15-74 in Estonian use internet for banking transaction.

The strength of this research is that author has almost covered all main features and issues related to e-Banking and has introduced the topic with historical background and recent statistics of increasing trend of using internet and E-banking in European Countries, although e-banking is newest delivery channel for banking services. The author describes it as electronic connection between bank and customer in order to prepare, manage and control financial transactions. While describing time and cost saving as specific features of e-banking, e-banking as “The Application of e-commerce infrastructure to banking industry” and has identified different aspects of E-banking such as (i) internet banking (ii)telephone banking (ii) mobile banking (iv) PC banking, (v) ATM etc. The author has identified following advantages of e-banking (i)More efficient, (ii), Cost saving, (iii)Time savings, (iv) Fast (v) Available (vi) Accessible Author has mentioned a time motion study in “Estonia” where internet banking is contributing to overall savings of 0.93% of GDP of the country. Author has also identified some of the core issues and challenges related to e-banking such as Risk management, Authentication and Legal issues, verification and reputation risks.

Weaknesses: Author has not completely discussed the security concerns involving internet banking.

The author’s Md. Subrun et.al [11] purpose here is to explore SMS based banking system in context of Bangladesh, which provide all necessary banking services by sending SMS. System have five main phases , which are interface module, SMS technology Module, SMS technology adoption module , SMS banking registration module and data failover module

The strength of this work is the module based purposed system which helps customers to get essential services which are, balance enquiry, balance transfer between authenticated customer, DPS payment and bill payment without internet through SMS.

Author in this paper suggest cheapest solution, because the SMS rate is very minimal for the customer, the customer also can save his or her time. The system can’t provide facility to saving the amount; the electricity failure is common in Bangladesh, therefore, the author data failover module not sufficient to handle it. The message alert is informal and can’t be used for any formal business.

S. Britto et, al [12], In this research proposed an architecture based framework for mobile payment consortia system (MPCS). It focuses on systems particularly for the educational institutions and students, for payment of fees and collection of fees through mobile devices, like PDAs, and cell phones

Major strength of author works is a purpose frame work which provides technical infrastructure such as acquiring user information, connectivity, authentications and communication to facilitate M-payment. The framework plays an intermediary role between banks, institutions and student, which support student for payment of the fees and for education institutions for collection of the fees. With the help of this framework, the amount will be transferred from student account to the institutions bank account, in which of course cost and time saving for the student is one of the major benefits. Limitation is that the frame work is focused only on a particular segment of the population.

The Author Mohammad Shirali et.al [13] introduces new type of mobile banking service, which offers banking service through mobile phone with in bank branches area , with help of Bluetooth technology. Blue tooth technology is considered most popular in mobile phone, because no cost is involved, and it has high speed as compared to the internet bank and SMS. The key strength of author’s work is that he is introducing new moth of mobile banking for banking service, through the Bluetooth technology, customer and banks both can benefit through this technology to save time and cost per transaction, major benefit is that there are no costs for every service, security is better than internet banking service. Bluetooth technology is also available in all pocket PCs , PDAs and laptops.

The limitation is that this service is limited in radius of 100 m.

The authors Delic Natali et.al [14] proposes integrated solution for the three main stakeholder of the mobile and internet baking in context of Serbia. The key stakeholders are Banks, application service providers, and mobile network operators. The purpose of this solution has three main parts: one is core mobile payment system, interface to the bank and service provider. This research is in context of Serbia , National center for payment card (NCPC) which provides an opportunity for existing mobile payment system to see the central point in the project.

The strength of author research is the integrated framework for the all key stakeholder of M-Banking internet banking and using POS services. There is no user fear either his bank have any agreement with any mobile operation because of dina card, customer can open account at any bank and option to select each of three services, either SMS, internet and POS. NCPC is responsible for clearing and settlement process for each bank, and provide reports for banks and merchant, security issue is also address in purposed solution, and for this purpose mPIN is generated.

The author’s Branimir Dukic et.al [15] purpose to elaborate the model of mobile payment system, M-Order , keeping in view the rapidly growing mobile phone usage in the republic of Croatia. The mobile users are double than internet users.

Strength of work is that author’s purpose is to propose a model which was developed after complete research and study. The following areas have been taken care of in the study: payment system through SMS, hardware software requirement study , analysis of safety event and process of payment system, secondly the purposed model is based on SMS (short messaging services).

Following services can be availed by the user with the help of this model, all inquiries, and payment order.

The limitation is that this, does not handle the data failure the complicated format of message format for different types of the services the formats are very difficult to understand for common user

3. Critical Evaluation

The impact of technology in banking sector is discovering in literature review section. These technologies are beneficial for the banking industry in general and also for customers is particular

The Table 2 presents the different technology used by industry in focus. Three area are discuss (1) Efficiency (2) Growth, (3) Resilience, Then the areas discussed by different authors in their respective publications have been highlighted through the (√) Tick mark sign

Table 2: Software testing w.r.t Agile Practices and Industry

The strengths and limitations of the publications have also been noted during the literature review, as these are based on the impact created by them on the overall results achieved at the end. These strengths can explain the importance of technology and limitations provide direction for more work on direction. Table 3 presents the identified strengths and limitations related to the existing material.

Table 2: Identified Strengths and Limitations

4. Conclusion and Future Work

The use to the mobile banking and internet banking is beneficial for the both Banking industries Telecom sector and Customer, in this era of the technology.

Demands of customer satisfaction, customer retention, timely and easy services, accessibility, availability and cost effectiveness are the challenges of the banking industry. Using technology especially Mobile banking and internet banking, the banks can cope these challenge. Literature review describes the important of mobile and internet technology for the banking sector. It is concluded with technology the banking can’t survive, and we can say “Banking without technology is not possible”. The future work is focused towards Branchless Banking through Mobile services for Microfinance sector.