Many of these banks continue to thrive but an alarming number have fallen by the wayside in recent months, with some aborted before they even got started. A hesitancy by consumers to give up branches, combined with more realistic expectations about the potential of Internet businesses propelled the demise of some. Several instances of Internet fraud did not help matters. Many executives of would-be Internet banks are regarding their brief forays as learning experiences. And many have gained a new appreciation for traditional methods of reaching out to customers.
People are reasonably slow to change their behaviours.
They do trust established brands and they want multiple access points. It would have been hard for us to establish full relationships with new customers and we couldn't really see where the revenue was going to come from. In March, ABN Amro Bank and KPN Telecom, a Dutch telecommunications firm, which is also a shareholder in Eircom, ended an eight-month collaboration in Money Planet. The collaboration was a joint venture that would have provided mortgages, insurance and savings accounts over the Internet in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Clearly the market's and people's expectations have changed.