Abstract

Throughout the last years competition in the banking industry has grown dramatically. Almost daily, headlines in the business press portray the financial services industry under the threat of massive change. The financial services industry is changing fast and very noticable. Old ways of doing business are disappearing rapidly. A good example is the German ConSors bank. ConSors started as a branch of the Schmidtbank. Now (in 1999) after going public it is the fifth biggest bank in Germany considering their market capital. But competition is also rising from nonbanks. Companies like Volkswagen or BMW offer not only loans for car buyers they also offer Creditcards or short notice One of the driving forces behind the growing competition is the rapid development in the field of information&communication technology. Starting almost 15 years ago with proprietary systems like the French minitel or the German btx the rapid growth of the use of the Internet has become a major driving force. Customers have become familiar with the use of electronic banking services and systems during the last years. The use of the Internet technology now provides consumers with the ability to bank, invest, purchase, distribute, communicate, explore from home, work, cafes, or virtually anywhere an Internet connection can be made. accounts to customers.

Share

COinS