Internet Banking in India: A Glimpse of its Adoption and Implementation in India through Case Studies

Electronic banking is an activity that is not new to the banks or its customers in India. Banks have been providing their services to customers electronically for years through software programs. These software programs allowed users personal computer to dial up the bank directly. In the past, however, banks have been very reluctant to provide their customers with banking via the Internet due to security concerns. Today, the scenario in India has changed. The banks now seem to be jumping the bandwagon of Internet banking. Why is there a sudden increase of bank’s interests in the Internet? The paper looks at these issues and therefore, has a fourfold objective. Firstly, the paper studies the evolution of modern day banks and the current state of banking in India. Secondly, it looks at the role of Information technology in this technology change. Thirdly, the paper compares the adoption and implementation of Internet banking in India through the case study of two banks. One of the banks under study is the most popular and emerging private bank (i.e. HDFC bank) that has been a front-runner in the adoption of Internet Banking and the other is a nationalized bank (i.e. Punjab National Bank), which is the first amongst the nationalized banks to have begun Internet banking. Fourthly, the paper concludes discussing the problems of Internet Banking thereby pinning hope that Internet Banking shall evolve and within no time shall become the most popular channel of banking in India.