Online Banking

Most people today, same as you, have probably heard of online banking.  In fact, the bank that you are patronizing would most certainly have online banking services available but, like a lot of people, you are too uncertain about the security of these services to give it a try.  You still fall in line at the bank to deposit and withdraw money from the teller or pay your bills by mail.  Even though you've made several purchases from the Internet without any incident, you still feel safer to transact with your bank in person. 

Probably the earliest form of widely accepted online banking would be the ATM machine.  It may not entirely fit the description of today's definition of "online" but with the ATM machine, people are able to transact with their accounts, withdraw or deposit, pay bills or transfer funds, without having to go inside a bank.  In fact, ATM machines are now so ubiquitous that they are often located in areas far away from the banks and are found in convenient commercial places where people would often need quick access to their cash. 

The ATM gave the public a taste of online banking and its advantages: accessibility, convenience, 24/7 availability and speed.  The bank was able to convince the public that this type of banking can be trusted.  Secure enough to gain our trust and confidence in the technology that today, probably more people carry and own ATM cards than those that own and carry a bank book.  

The banks are of course wary of introducing new technology for fear of losing the hard-earned trust from their clientele, which they have worked so hard to gain.  The wide spread popularity of the personal computers in the 80s gave the banking industry a new opportunity to expand the concept of online banking from just a remote terminal found at convenient locations to actually have it directly accessed in the client's own home through their personal computers. 

Security for this new online banking method meant that those who would like to take advantage of this more personal form of online banking would have to dial-in to the bank's private network to connect directly with the bank's server.  This also meant that proprietary software has to be used to avail the various services while connected.  This was known as PC banking or home banking and was offered to selected clientele for a small fee. 

Then the Internet arrived and even with its inherent public and unsecured network infrastructure, people were able to accept and adapt to it and in fact, commerce even thrived.  The banking industry scrambled to convert their existing online banking system to work with the Internet while insuring security for transactions done through this public space.  The challenge, aside from providing secure access, was also to gain the public's trust and to use this new system. 

Most large banks today offers online banking through the Internet as a basic service.  Some may charge a small fee but others offer this as a free service.  With online banking now adapted to use Internet technology, it will have the advantage of being familiar to the millions of Internet users and banks will be able to deliver new services faster.  

As more and more people get comfortable with online banking services and as more and more banks succeed with their internet strategy, online banking will be as common as the ATM machines you see at the mall.  And as different technologies merges, like wireless broadband and cell phones and security chips, ATM machines may be a thing of the past.