Banker-Customer Relationship under E-banking Regime: Nigeria in Context

Abstract

 Bank in traditional parlance is an institution that accepts money from its customers in the form of deposits and then collects cheques on their behalf, placing those cheques to the customer's credit. The bank is obliged to honour the cheques that are drawn on it or orders drawn on it to pay a third party. Thus, in banking business current accounts for customers and record debits and credits to the account are to be maintained. These services are provided at the bank branch where the customer maintains an account. Despite this broad description, a company might still constitute a bank, even though it did not undertake these activities if it was accepted and recognized as a bank by other bankers. The modem electronic banking otherwise known as e-banking, on the other hand, is that system of banking that provides the financial service for the individual customer by means of Internet2. Here bank customer with personal computer and a browser can get connected to his banker's website to carry out any of the virtual banking functions. E-banking has been a radical challenge to both developed and developing economies for a number of reasons. Thus, Nigeria as a developing economy is faced with challenges of how to cope with the e-banking system in terms of provisions of adequate basic infrastructure, social disposition and attitudinal changes. To what extent this globalization trend of development in the banking industry has impacted the traditional banker-customer relations in a developing economy like Nigeria, forms the focus of analysis in this study.