Permap study says ATM is the most trusted among all e-banking channels in India :)

In recent times, intensifying competition and financial liberalization has led Indian banking sector to look towards information and communication technology (ICT). So banks are rapidly adopting electronic banking channels to efficiently reach their target market and reduce operational cost. Despite the various advantages of electronic banking, it is still in infancy stage in India. There is a need to systematically explore customers’ perceptions towards various electronic banking channels and their underlying motives to choose & prefer one channel over other. This study uses Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) approach to develop

a perceptual map of select electronic channels and to derive relevant dimensions. Findings suggest that Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is distinctly placed and was perceived to be most secure & useful electronic banking channel. Internet banking and mobile banking were perceived to be low on security dimension. Phone banking although perceived secure, but it scored high on complexity and low on usefulness.

For developing a perceptual map of e-banking services, five active e-banking channels were selected viz.

·         Automated Teller Machine (ATM)

·         Electronic Transfer of Funds (EFT)

·         Phone banking

·         mobile banking

·         internet banking

Active channels are those in which customer is completely involved till transaction is over.Passive e-banking channels like Electronic Clearance System (ECS) were not studied; reason is that in such cases once consumers sign up of services, there is nothing else they need to do.

Final model suggests that ATM has distinct position on perceptual map and is

considered to be most secure among all e-banking channels. Further, ATM tops on ‘high usefulness & low complexity dimension. Further, Internet banking and mobile banking occupied close position on perceptual map.

Although phone banking was perceived secure, however, it fared very low on

usefulness.

Internet banking was perceived to be lowest on security, followed by mobile banking. But on usefulness dimension internet baking has more positive perception.