An Exploratory Study on Internet Banking Usage in Semi - Urban Areas in India

Internet banking or online banking has revolutionized an integral activity of our modern twenty first century lives – ‘banking’. Internet banking is conducted through a PC, PDA, a hand-held communication gadget or any mobile device offering Internet connectivity but with the development of Hi-Tech asynchronous technologies and secured electronic transaction technologies, however, more banks have come forward to use Internet banking both as a transactional as well as an informational medium. Even after having so many advantages, still some factors are there, which affects its usage. There are some of the psychological and behavioral factors which affect the adoption of any new innovation such as Internet banking include consumer awareness, ease of use, security, accessibility, techno phobia or simply reluctance to change, preference for personalized services and cost of adopting the innovation. This research paper was focused on to identify the factors that are the barriers for the usage of internet banking services and also to study the perception of customer about internet banking. The study was exploratory in nature and sample size considered for the study was 100 respondents, those were having account in that banks, which provide the Internet Banking facility, but they are not using it. The primary data was analyzed by factor analysis and identify the nine factors i.e. cost, reliability, processing barriers, security issues, technological incontinence, lack of infrastructure, conventional approach, risk and resistance, which were the barriers in the usage of Internet Banking services in the semi-urban areas.