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ABSTRACT The development and the increasing progress that is being experienced in the Information and Communication Technology have brought about a lot of changes in almost all facets of life. In the Banking Industry, it has been in the form of online banking, which is now replacing the traditional banking practice. Online banking has a lot of benefits which add value to customers satisfaction in terms of better quality of service offerings and at the same time enable the banks gain more competitive advantage over other competitors. There are some associated risks identified in the study that seem to hinder the success of e-banking services and thus constitute major concern to both financial institutions and customers. Keywords: Communication Technology, Banking, Services,

INTRODUCTION The bank customers play a vital role in the banking sector. They are the key players of the banking industry and all the efforts are made by the banks to satisfy the desirable needs of the customers E-banking is a generic term for delivery of banking services and products through Information and Communication Technology, such as the telephone, the internet, the cell phone, etc. E-banking means any user with a personal computer and a browser can get connected to his bank -s website to perform any of the virtual banking functions. The concept and scope of E-banking is still evolving. It facilitates an effective payment and accounting system. Information and Communication Technology is the automation of processes, controls, and information production using computers, telecommunications, software and ancillary equipment such as automated teller machine and debit cards. Use of Information and Communication Technology includes account opening, customer account mandate, and transaction processing and recording. Information and Communication advances (networks, computing power, applications, etc.) have enabled disbursed information to be assembled into accessible complex organizational database knowledge repositories. Technology has provided self-service facilities (automated customer service machines) from where prospective customers can complete their account opening documents direct online and also validate their account numbers and receive instruction on when and how to receive their cheque books, credit and debit cards and sends text messages to mobile phone. Information and Communication Technology is used in banking in three main ways processing cheques, operating
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ATMs and it allows home banking. Home banking uses the Internet or telephone/mobile to give the customer access to their bank accounts 24-hours a day. It allows people to make payments and transfer funds at any time, again making it more convenient for the customer.

E.SERVICES FOR BANKING

e-Banking Customers have appreciated that internet banking has enhanced customer convenience and comfort, but at the same time exposed customers to unforeseen frauds. The customers complained that accounts had been hacked from remote locations and also from locations distant from one another. Simultaneous hacking transactions had been reported from multiple locations also. The banks defend the same by taking a plea that the customer would have compromised with the PIN and the password of the internet banking access. However, the circumstantial evidence of misuse at a distant country pointed out otherwise as such locations had no direct relation with the customer at all. Many frauds are committed by fraudsters through identity thefts like phishing and pharming etc. The customers opine that they were innocent parties to such transactions and they had no relation / involvement with such frauds in anyway. Further, the customers had also indicated that there were no definite grievance redressal processes to address complaints of this nature. While the customers realized that investigations of such complaints might take time, they also felt that they were also not given benefit of doubt. Customers repeatedly mentioned that while technological banking aspects like net-banking was convenient to them and cost effective to the banks, there should be a total secure protection afforded to the customers against any losses suffered on account of such banking. Customers have complained that banks restrict the amounts that can be transferred online by way of a day cap or by way of a ceiling amount per transfer. It was felt that additional factors of authentication should be taken and higher amounts should also be permitted for online transfers. Online / Mobile Payments Customers all over the country have expressed satisfaction at online payment facilities created by the various utility holders and other service providers through the bank platforms. It was appreciated that several airlines, utility companies, etc. were providing discounts for online payments, online ticketing, etc. Such facilities and offers also help the banks and RBI in currency management as the movement of currency is restricted. The Committee felt that if such small discounts to favor electronic payments are given by all the users of electronic bank platforms for
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collections, a substantial shift in favor of electronic payments as opposed to cash may happen in future and that would also result in substantial savings in cash management to such utilities and others. Mobile banking coupled with digitization of records can revolutionize everyday life for the vast majority. Economically weaker section shall be brought into the banking system by combining No Frills Account / Micro Finance / Government subsidies and payments. The success factors for mobile banking in Micro Finance depend upon mass customer adoption, utility of mobile service for cash-in and cash-out transactions, inter-operability of service providers like banks / Micro Finance Institutions / Mobile Network Operators and Mobile Application Providers using sophisticated technology. We need continuous updating of a defined proportionate regulation, so that the service providers are able to meet the regulatory challenges. It has the potential of replacing credit / debit card system. As mobile operators are not allowed to enter the financial services space, banks have greater autonomy in developing their own banking mobile platform to ensure banking penetration, availability of banking services and the usage of banking system. At present, there is better penetration of post office and mobile telephony in rural areas. In immediate future, post office accounts are to be linked with modern communication networks which can act as a platform for interoperability of service providers like banks/ MFIs, Mobile Network Operators and Mobile Application Providers. ATM/Debit/Credit Cards Customer feedback about the Cards indicated that it would be better if there was a photograph of the Card holder and the signature of the Card holder also laminated on the Card to enable easy identification at the merchant establishment. The laminated signature would be exactly the same as in the bank records. The Committee after deliberating the issue felt that if the address of the card holder is present on the laminated portion, with a proviso for including the UID number, the Card issued by the bank would become a tool for KYC compliance. Merchant Discount/Fee for Debit Cards Customer feedback indicated that merchants show a preference for cash as they do not want to part with the merchant discount to the Card service provider. Cards are accepted as a payment mechanism without issues only by reputed merchant establishments, by merchants to affect a sale which is not

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possible if the card is not accepted and when the customer is willing to pay the premium demanded by the merchant. In other circumstances, cash is preferred. The percentage of interchange/ merchant fee charged by the Card service providers for both debit and credit card being the same, a merchant is indifferent to a credit/debit card. Card data indicates that more than 80% of the cards are debit cards and the customers feel that debit card is akin to cash as it directly debits their accounts and does not confer any advantage by way of a credit facility. Customer feedback indicated that if the merchant service fee is made minimal for a debit card, it might encourage its acceptance by the merchant establishments and thereby encourage electronic payments. Card service providers and banks should therefore follow a differential merchant fee policy in favour of debit cards which will, over a period of time, reduce the dependence on cash for payments. Non-dispensation of Cash at ATM The customers complained that while carrying out transactions at the ATM, sometimes the account is debited, but cash was not dispensed. The Committee observed from the number of such complaints that the same had now become a recurring feature. The Committee also observed that there was no definite grievance redressal mechanism in place with the customer being out of funds for the time taken by the bank to resolve the complaint. Notwithstanding the penalty imposed by RBI on banks for delayed redressal after 12 days, customers feel that there should be a zero liability clause whereby immediately on being informed of an ATM failing to deliver cash, the funds of the customer should be immediately restored. Customers desire that a camera or some other equipment evidencing cash should be attached and once a complaint is made, it should be possible to authorize restoration of funds online. Detailed investigation into the matter, if required, may be done separately by the bank. It would be helpful if every ATM was provided with a unique ID so that a mere reference to the same would hasten the redressal of the customer grievance. ATM cameras should be so placed as to take a clear picture of the person doing the ATM operations and the lighting inside the ATM booth should facilitate the same. An additional small camera should take a snapshot of the customer picking up the money from the bin so as to assist customers when cash disbursement does not take place. Whenever a complaint on ATM withdrawal is received, the bank should ensure to preserve the CCTV recordings till the grievance is fully redressed. Complaints on account of Cloning of Cards

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ATM and credit card customers have complained that banks were not restoring funds debited to their accounts by cloned cards from distant places. Customers insist that they have not parted with the cards and hence cannot be liable for transactions which the banks hold them responsible for. Customers demand that in a card present scenario such distant transactions if not authorized by the customer should immediately be reversed. Over the Limit Charges Credit Card customers are charged Over the limit charges when their limit is exceeded. This facility of Over the limit is given to the customers with a view to ensure that a current transaction which is marginally above the limit is not declined. Also, in case of ATM cards, a simple overdraft is permitted in the savings bank account by many banks. Customers have represented that they are not aware of the extent of over the limit or Overdraft permitted to them. It was also felt, that for a marginal excess over the limit, the charge usually was more than the actual excess. The Committee was of the view that there should be a customer choice for operation of this facility, the extent of over the limit/Overdraft be known in advance and the charges for the same should not exceed the actual excess. Personalization of Accounts Corporate customers desired product customization at the customer end, in short, a dynamic personalization of account should be possible. Customers wanted online programmes on bank sites which would enable customers to automate money transfers, maintain balance levels, get nonstandard account statements and a host of such facilities which would improve their information levels and make their cash management more efficient. User Community Many customers felt that for better product design, banks need to take in to consideration user perspective which is possible through user feedback. This would help in better product design, best suited to user needs. Banks should encourage formation of user communities to get feedback on the banks and also to enhance the efficiency of their products and design new products. Increasing Customer Access Customers in remote corners of the country have expressed displeasure at the low density of ATMs and their concentration only in metro and urban areas. They have desired either an exponential increase of ATMs in all the areas of the country including villages or create customer access to banking for withdrawal of cash and for transactions by a chain of human ATM network of business
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correspondents of banks. Mobile Banking The Committee felt that there would be convergence onto the mobile platform of a lot of applications of the banking industry. Mobile banking is expected to take off in a big way giving rise to possibility of customer grievances in the area. As mobile banking would span both banking and telecom sectors, the Committee felt that mobile is just a medium of putting through the banking transactions and hence all grievances of mobile banking should be addressed only by the banks without referring the customer to the telecom service providers. The agreements of the banks with the telecom service providers should incorporate suitable provisions to address mobile banking grievances. Customers across the country showed a preference to ATM / PoS withdrawal using applications involving mobile phones. Such mobile applications are there in a very limited or in experimental stage. The Committee is of the view that this is more secure mode compared to withdrawal through bearer cheque as in this case both the parties viz. the account holder and the mobile owner are already subjected to full KYC and complete audit trail is available at both the ends. Hence, such transactions could be encouraged both at ATM as well as PoS up to the ceiling for withdrawal applicable for ATM and PoS respectively. There should not be any additional registration of the mobile beneficiary with the bank, as no such condition is there for withdrawal by bearer cheques. While identification of a bearer cheque may be taken in practice, no registration or KYC is done. Such a burden is not there for ATM or PoS withdrawal. Further, in the case of customers using mobile platforms, mobile number serves as identification. Business Process Re-engineering Customers have brought to the notice of the Committee several issues causing hardship in day-to-day operations on account of incomplete BPR while going in for CBS. The issue of HUF/PPF accounts has been discussed earlier. There were several such issues which were to be addressed when banks were to be computerized. Some of them are: Automatic updating of age records and then conferring senior citizen benefits wherever applicable once a customer becomes a senior citizen. Minor customer turning a major. Cheques not being collected and honored for the second account holder.

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System not allowing the survivor to continue an either or survivor joint account after demise of one of the account holders. System not allowing conversion of a single account to a joint account. Specialized Government Scheme accounts like PPF, Senior Citizen Special Deposit Schemes, etc. not being updated in the system resulting in deposits being collected after expiry of schemes. Tax deducted at source not being communicated to the IT department for appropriate credit to the assesse accounts. Tax deducted at source even after collection of Form 15 G/H etc. Registering and issuance of acknowledgements to the account holders in respect of nominees. Divarication for receipt and reminder for Life Certificate for pensioners.

Compensation In the deliberations of the Committee relating to technology banking, the issues of customer liability in a similar transaction in a manual scenario was also considered. For example, cheques lost by customers but passed by a bank on account of frauds; do not deprive the customer of his rights, even in cases where he fails to confirm the bank of lost cheques. A customer must, therefore, carry out a transaction for it to be a valid and authorized one. Frauds involving cloned card, unauthorized online transactions, ATM transactions not done by the customer etc. cannot be valid transactions as they are not authorized by the customers. Instead of the bank putting the onus on the customer to prove that he has not done the transaction or caused it to happen, the onus should be on the bank to prove that the customer has done the transaction. Negligence, if any, on the part of the customer does not deprive him of customer / consumer rights. E- Commerce Services and Products E-commerce products and services are methods used by banking organizations to carry out their transactions without necessarily coming into physical contact with their clients. These services include Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), Electronic Fund Transfer (ETF), mobile banking, online banking, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and telecommunication services. Credit card is one of the few remarkable innovations introduced successfully by banks in the last five decades, and it is currently being used extensively in B2C electronic commerce. But it is an expensive means of payment for ecommerce and many on-line shoppers will prefer other forms of paying for their

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purchase. So will many on-line retailers who have to cough up set up and transaction costs and 2-3% of every payment. Moreover credit cards are not suitable for person-to-person trade on the Internet. In short, e-commerce has created a demand for low cost facility for micro payments and. New ways of on-line payments are appearing in the market, such as deduction from a pre-paid account, electronic billing services, direct transfer out of bank accounts. There is a possibility for credit card companies and banks to act as information intermediaries. In such a construction, a bank customer downloads software from the bank that he knows and can trust. With the help of the software, he can browse without the target websites knowing his identity at all. When he decides to buy an article online, the software generates a new identity for him, with a fictitious name and e-mail address, a coded postal address, and a one-off credit card number. The new identity is sent, via the online merchant, back to the bank. The bank would then check the details of the transaction and approves the transaction. The post office receives a decoded address label and the coded name. Electronic Banking and Service Quality As customers become more sophisticated, therefore, it becomes essential to consider the use of technology to respond to their continuously change. Banking is an industry highly which is highly involved with the customers. Customers in developing economies seems to keep the technological factors of services as the yardstick in differentiating good & bad services and the human factor the employees seem to play a lesser role in discriminating the quality of service for banks. The variation in services offered by the banks develops the excellence for service quality. Banking is no longer regarded as a business dealing with money transaction alone, but it also seem as a business related to information on financial transaction. Customers whether at the corporate level or at retail level have always been important for the banks. As electronic banking is becoming more prevalent, so level of customer satisfaction is also changing the scenario of technological environment. Informational technology in form of e-banking plays a significant role in providing better services at lower cost. Several innovative IT based service such as Automated Teller Machine (ATM), Internet banking, Smart cards, Credit Cards, Mobile banking, Phone banking, Anywhere-Anytime banking have provided number of convenient services to the customer So as the service quality improves, the probability of customer satisfaction increases. Increase satisfactions in turn increase the mutual understanding customer retention and a bond of trust between customer and bank. The banks which are providing these services at large extent to customers are more reputed in the eyes of customers. But at the same time technology based product
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is different in public and private sector banks. Bank automation and electronic banking is fast in private sector comparative to public sector. E-banking is an improvement over traditional banking system because it has reduced the cost of transaction processing, improve the payment efficiency, financial services and improve the bankercustomer relationship. The relationship between ebanking and service quality can be studied with the level of satisfaction. As the customer satisfaction is the function of customer expectation level and service quality level provided by the organization. E-banking plays a pivotal role in giving satisfaction to the customers because e-banking fills the gap between the expected and perceived service quality. So in order to fill this gap, banks should find ways of making electronic services more accessible and by allowing the customer to verify the accuracy of the e-banking transactions. There are number of reasons due to which customer satisfaction due to e-banking has improved. 1. Customer can withdraw funds, transfer funds anytime, anywhere they want. 2. Accessibility has been extended through technological development as it allows customers to do business from their home and office. 3. It makes the banking activities and transaction very simpler to understand 4. There is no requirement of direct control with bank, as services can be operated wherever customer wants. 5. It has reduced the waiting time of the customer; no long queue standing is required. 6. Availability of employees at all times is not required as these services are provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 7. Internet based services has enabled the corporate and retail customers to transact from home, office and traveling. 8. Online fund transfer enabled the customer to transfer funds from one bank to another or within the same bank at same time. 9. Communication, interaction between the bank and customer has been improved due to e-banking. On the whole we can say that e-banking has become pre-imminent method of carrying the banking transaction and to increase the customer satisfaction. With the present chapter an effort has been made to analyze the impact of e-banking on customer satisfaction with servqual dimension. Conclusion: For the banking sector, the internet marks the transition from the brick and mortar stage of banking to the branchless stage. In a world, Information Technology has moderated the constraints of
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time, space, and information access in world trade and commerce as a whole. The e-banking and ecommerce is changing the banking industry and is having the major effects on banking relationships. Within banking culture, the flow of information in customer services and applications cannot be understood if detached from an Information Communication Technology technical prospective. The widening use of Information Communication Technology in e-banking is having profound impacts on e-services. The impacts of Information Communication Technology are more than just those of efficiency and effectiveness. The impact of Information Communication Technology is moving deeper and deeper into substantial economic and social science domains, where it increasingly interacts with them. The literature provides an extensive account of the relationships between Information and Communication Technology, e-service quality, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. In this paper authors have briefly described the various researches carried out in the area of e-banking. This paper also states that how the adoption of technology is useful for banking organizations to identify, preserve and disseminate best context of e-service practices to satisfy the customers to achieve business goal. Reference Books: 1. Report of the Committee on Customer Service in Banks, Reserve Bank of India, Mumbai-2011. 2. SBI Training guide for Internet Banking-2010 3. E-Banking in India, Jaysree, ICFAI-2009 4. E.Banking in India: Challenges and Opportunities, Rimpi, New Century Publications=0ct.2007.
Websites: www.statebankofindia.com www.onlinesbi.com www.weikipedia.com www.google.com

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