what is online banking

If you're like most people,
you've heard a lot about
online banking but
probably haven't tried it
yourself. You still pay
your bills by mail and
deposit checks at your
bank branch, much the
way your parents did. You might shop online for
a loan, life insurance or a home mortgage, but
when it comes time to commit, you feel more
comfortable working with your banker or an
agent you know and trust.
Online banking isn't out to change your money
habits. Instead, it uses today's computer
technology to give you the option of bypassing
the time-consuming, paper-based aspects of
traditional banking in order to manage your
finances more quickly and efficiently.
Origin of online banking
The advent of the Internet and the popularity of
personal computers presented both an
opportunity and a challenge for the banking
industry.
For years, financial institutions have used
powerful computer networks to automate
millions of daily transactions; today, often the
only paper record is the customer's receipt at the
point of sale. Now that its customers are
connected to the Internet via personal computers,
banks envision similar economic advantages by
adapting those same internal electronic processes
to home use.
Banks view online banking as a powerful "value
added" tool to attract and retain new customers
while helping to eliminate costly paper handling
and teller interactions in an increasingly
competitive banking environment