Online banking could lead to a major challenge to the dominance of banks in providing financial services. We're talking about a paradigm quake that will rattle the entire industry. The impact will be much more radical than with previous innovations such as the automatic teller machine or phone banking. Computer networks allow access from anywhere and lower costs significantly. In Asia, banking by computer is just beginning.
Most firms have little more than a website.
They can also buy stocks. Download the complete 1998 Asiaweek Financial 500 Beyond Japan and Singapore, banks elsewhere are lagging. The Philippines, for example, doesn't yet have the critical mass of wired citizens to convince banks there to pour the resources required to really get online banking going. There are high up-front costs. For one, a bank must put all its data in digital form.