Impact of Information and Communication Technology in Banking Business
CHAPTER ONE
1. General Introduction
Robust financial institutions provide an indispensable support to an economy. If the financial industry collapses, the whole economy is likely to collapse. This is evident from the current recession in the United Kingdom. In a bid to improve the activities of financial institutions, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been found instrumental and is adopted worldwide.
ICT involves the use of electronic gadgets, especially computers and their peripherals, for storing, analyzing and distributing data. In recent times, ICT is having a dramatic influence on almost all aspects of individual lives and that of the world. Technology has helped many business owners worldwide in running successful businesses. In the past decade, large volumes of paper were being used in offices. Data were collected and stored in loose hard copies filed away in cabinets or piled on office desks. This was quite cumbersome. With the advancement of business activities, a solution was developed to help many companies organize their work through ICT.
Now, electronic storage and accessing of information is possible. Data retrieval is easier than it used to be before the advent of ICT. Electronically stored information is easily referred to when need arises. This has been advantageous to most businesses because of ease of comparison between current data and historical data in the processes of monitoring and evaluating individual business activities.
Banks have adopted the new technology. Vast improvements seem to have been registered in bank service delivery. The inconvenience of queuing for bank services has been drastically reduced by the introduction of the auto-teller machines. Simple bank account data, like account balances can be retrieved easily from an auto-teller. The painstaking exercise of filling withdrawal forms, upon which any mistake will warrant refilling the forms and queuing again, has been costing the client
1. General Introduction
Robust financial institutions provide an indispensable support to an economy. If the financial industry collapses, the whole economy is likely to collapse. This is evident from the current recession in the United Kingdom. In a bid to improve the activities of financial institutions, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been found instrumental and is adopted worldwide.
ICT involves the use of electronic gadgets, especially computers and their peripherals, for storing, analyzing and distributing data. In recent times, ICT is having a dramatic influence on almost all aspects of individual lives and that of the world. Technology has helped many business owners worldwide in running successful businesses. In the past decade, large volumes of paper were being used in offices. Data were collected and stored in loose hard copies filed away in cabinets or piled on office desks. This was quite cumbersome. With the advancement of business activities, a solution was developed to help many companies organize their work through ICT.
Now, electronic storage and accessing of information is possible. Data retrieval is easier than it used to be before the advent of ICT. Electronically stored information is easily referred to when need arises. This has been advantageous to most businesses because of ease of comparison between current data and historical data in the processes of monitoring and evaluating individual business activities.
Banks have adopted the new technology. Vast improvements seem to have been registered in bank service delivery. The inconvenience of queuing for bank services has been drastically reduced by the introduction of the auto-teller machines. Simple bank account data, like account balances can be retrieved easily from an auto-teller. The painstaking exercise of filling withdrawal forms, upon which any mistake will warrant refilling the forms and queuing again, has been costing the client