Internet-based e-banking and consumer attitudes: an empirical study

Consumer attitudes toward the usefulness of and willingness to use Internet e-retail banking were identified and measured. Our survey was undertaken in Singapore, because its geography and well-developed infrastructure implied similar and small physical- and tele-communication costs, thereby highlighting the differences between traditional and Internet-based retail banking upon the latter's introduction. The data showed that expectations of accuracy, security, network speed, user-friendliness, user involvement and convenience were the most important quality attributes underlying perceived usefulness. Regression discovered that willingness to use depended significantly on the first five factors, allowing the interdependencies or marginal rates of substitution between them to be estimated. Our results draw attention to demand-side changes in explaining the recent slowdown in Internet e-retail banking, and may also be useful for development planning and marketing. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.