Online banking From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Part of a series on Electronic commerce Online goods and services

Streaming media Electronic books Software Retail services Banking Food ordering Online flower delivery Online pharmacy DVD-by-mail Travel Marketplace services Trading communities Auctions Online wallet Advertising Price comparison service Social commerce Mobile commerce Payment Ticketing Banking E-procurement Purchase-to-pay This box: view talk edit Online banking (or Internet banking) allows customers to conduct financial transactions on a secure website operated by their retail or virtual bank, credit union or building society.Contents [hide] 1 Features 2 History 3 Security 4 See also 5 References 6 External links [edit] Features

Online banking solutions have many features and capabilities in common, but traditionally also have some that are application specific. The common features fall broadly into several categories Transactional (e.g., performing a financial transaction such as an account to account transfer, paying a bill, wire transfer, apply for a loan, new account, etc.) Payments to third parties, including bill payments and telegraphic/wire transfers Funds transfers between a customer's own transactional account and savings accounts Investment purchase or sale Loan applications and transactions, such as repayments of enrollments Non-transactional (e.g., online statements, cheque links, cobrowsing, chat) Viewing recent transactions Downloading bank statements, for example in PDF format Viewing images of paid cheques Financial Institution Administration Management of multiple users having varying levels of authority Transaction approval process Features commonly unique to Internet banking include Personal financial management support, such as importing data into personal accounting software. Some online banking platforms support account aggregation to allow the customers to monitor all of their accounts in one place whether they are with their main bank or with other institutions. [edit] History The precursor for the modern home online banking services were the distance banking services over electronic media from the early 1980s. The term online became popular in the late '80s and referred to the use of a terminal, keyboard and TV (or monitor) to access the banking system using a phone line. Home banking can also refer to the use of a numeric keypad to send tones down a phone line with instructions to the bank. Online services started in New York in 1981 when four of the citys major banks (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover) offered home banking services[1] using the videotex system. Because of the commercial failure of videotex these banking services never became popular except in France where the use of videotex (Minitel) was subsidised by the telecom provider and the UK, where the Prestel system was used. The UK's first home online banking services[2] was set up by Bank of Scotland for customers of the Nottingham Building Society (NBS) in 1983.[3] The system used was based on the UK's Prestel system and used a computer, such as the BBC Micro, or keyboard (Tandata Td1400) connected to the telephone system and television set. The system (known as 'Homelink') allowed on-line viewing of statements, bank transfers and bill payments. In order to make bank transfers and bill payments, a written instruction giving details of the intended recipient had to be sent to the NBS who set the details up on the Homelink system. Typical recipients were gas, electricity and telephone companies and accounts with other banks. Details of payments to be made were input into the NBS system by the account holder via Prestel. A cheque was then sent by NBS to the payee and an advice giving details of the payment was sent to the account holder. BACS was later used to transfer the payment directly.

Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994.[citation needed] Today, many banks are internet only banks. Unlike their predecessors, these internet only banks do not maintain brick and mortar bank branches. Instead, they typically differentiate themselves by offering better interest rates and online banking features. [edit] Security Security token devices Protection through single password authentication, as is the case in most secure Internet shopping sites, is not considered secure enough for personal online banking applications in some countries. Basically there exist two different security methods for online banking. The PIN/TAN system where the PIN represents a password, used for the login and TANs representing one-time passwords to authenticate transactions. TANs can be distributed in different ways, the most popular one is to send a list of TANs to the online banking user by postal letter. The most secure way of using TANs is to generate them by need using a security token. These token generated TANs depend on the time and a unique secret, stored in the security token (this is called two-factor authentication or 2FA). Usually online banking with PIN/TAN is done via a web browser using SSL secured connections, so that there is no additional encryption needed. Another way to provide TANs to an online banking user is to send the TAN of the current bank transaction to the user's (GSM) mobile phone via SMS. The SMS text usually quotes the transaction amount and details, the TAN is only valid for a short period of time. Especially in Germany and Austria, many banks have adopted this "SMS TAN" service as it is considered very secure. Signature based online banking where all transactions are signed and encrypted digitally. The Keys for the signature generation and encryption can be stored on smartcards or any memory medium, depending on the concrete implementation. Attacks Most of the attacks on online banking used today are based on deceiving the user to steal login data and valid TANs. Two well known examples for those attacks are phishing and pharming. Cross-site scripting and keylogger/Trojan horses can also be used to steal login information. A method to attack signature based online banking methods is to manipulate the used software in a way, that correct transactions are shown on the screen and faked transactions are signed in the background. A recent FDIC Technology Incident Report, compiled from suspicious activity reports banks file quarterly, lists 536 cases of computer intrusion, with an average loss per incident of $30,000. That adds up to a nearly $16-million loss in the second quarter of

2007. Computer intrusions increased by 150 percent between the first quarter of 2007 and the second. In 80 percent of the cases, the source of the intrusion is unknown but it occurred during online banking, the report states.[2] The most recent kind of attack is the so-called Man in the Browser attack, where a Trojan horse permits a remote attacker to modify the destination account number and also the amount. Countermeasures There exist several countermeasures which try to avoid attacks. Digital certificates are used against phishing and pharming, the use of class-3 card readers is a measure to avoid manipulation of transactions by the software in signature based online banking variants. To protect their systems against Trojan horses, users should use virus scanners and be careful with downloaded software or e-mail attachments. In 2001 the FFIEC issued guidance for multifactor authentication (MFA) and then required to be in place by the end of 2006.[3]1 Electronic banking is an umbrella term for the process by which a customer may perform banking transactions electronically without visiting a brick-and-mortar institution. The following terms all refer to one form or another of electronic banking: personal computer (PC) banking, Internet banking, virtual banking, online banking, home banking, remote electronic banking, and phone banking. PC banking and Internet or online banking are the most frequently used designations. It should be noted, however, that the terms used to describe the various types of electronic banking are often used interchangeably. PC banking is a form of online banking that enables customers to execute bank transactions from a PC via a modem. In most PC banking ventures, the bank offers the customer a proprietary financial software program that allows the customer to perform financial transactions from his or her home computer. The customer then dials into the bank with his or her modem, downloads data, and runs the programs that are resident on the customers computer. Currently, many banks offer PC banking systems that allow customers to obtain account balances and credit card statements, pay bills, and transfer funds between accounts. Internet banking, sometimes called online banking, is an outgrowth of PC banking. Internet banking uses the Internet as the delivery channel by which to conduct banking activity, for example, transferring funds, paying bills, viewing checking and savings account balances, paying mortgages, and purchasing financial instruments and certificates of deposit. An Internet banking customer accesses his or her accounts from a browser software that runs Internet banking programs resident on the banks
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^ Cronin, Mary J. (1997). Banking and Finance on the Internet, John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0471292192 page 41 from Banking and Finance on the Internet. Retrieved 2008-07-10.. See also "The Home Banking Dilemma". Retrieved 2008-07-10. and "Computer Giants Giving a Major Boost to Increased Use of Corporate Videotex". Communications News. 1984. Retrieved 2008-07-10. ^ Security Flaws in Online Banking Sites Found to be Widespread Newswise, Retrieved on July 23, 2008. ^ OCC 2005-35

World Wide Web server, not on the users PC. NetBanker defines a true Internet bank as one that provides account balances and some transactional capabilities to retail customers over the World Wide Web. Internet banks are also known as virtual, cyber, net, interactive, or web banks. To date, more banks have established an advertising presence on the Internet primarily in the form of informational or interactive web sitesthan have created transactional web sites. However, a number of Banks that do not yet offer transactional Internet banking services have indicated on their web sites that they will offer such banking activities in the future. Although Internet banks offer many of the same services as do traditional brick-andmortar Banks, analysts view Internet banking as a means of retaining increasingly sophisticated customers, of developing a new customer base, and of capturing a greater share of depositor assets. A typical Internet bank site specifies the types of transactions offered and provides information about account security. Because Internet banks generally have lower operational and transactional costs than do traditional brick-and-mortar banks, they are often able to offer low-cost checking and high-yield Certificates of deposit. Internet banking is not limited to a physical site; some Internet banks exist without physical branches, for example, Telebank (Arlington, Virginia) and Banknet (UK). Further, in some cases, web banks are not restricted to conducting transactions within national borders and have the ability to make transactions involving large amounts of assets instantaneously. According to industry analysts, electronic banking provides a variety of attractive possibilities for remote account access, including: Availability of inquiry and transaction services around the clock; worldwide connectivity; Easy access to transaction data, both recent and historical; and Direct customer control of international movement of funds without intermediation of financial institutions in customers jurisdiction. OPENING AN ACCOUNT There are several ways to open and fund an electronic banking account in the United States. Customers who have existing accounts at brickand-mortar banks and want to begin using electronic banking services may simply ask their institution for the software needed for PC banking or obtain a password for Internet banking. Either approach requires minimal paperwork. Once they have joined the system, customers have electronic access to all of their accounts at the bank. New customers can establish an account either by completing a PC banking application form and mailing it to an institution offering such a service or by accessing a banks web site and applying online for Internet banking. In either instance, the customer can fund the new online account with a check, wire transfer, or other form of remittance. No physical interface between the customer and the institution is required.

What is online banking? If you're like most people, you've heard a lot about online banking but probably haven't tried it yourself. You still pay your bills by mail and deposit checks at your bank branch, much the way your parents did. You might shop online for a loan, life insurance or a home mortgage, but when it comes time to commit, you feel more comfortable working with your banker or an agent you know and trust. Online banking isn't out to change your money habits. Instead, it uses today's computer technology to give you the option of bypassing the time-consuming, paperbased aspects of traditional banking in order to manage your finances more quickly and efficiently. Origin of online banking The advent of the Internet and the popularity of personal computers presented both an opportunity and a challenge for the banking industry. For years, financial institutions have used powerful computer networks to automate millions of daily transactions; today, often the only paper record is the customer's receipt at the point of sale. Now that its customers are connected to the Internet via personal computers, banks envision similar economic advantages by adapting those same internal electronic processes to home use. Banks view online banking as a powerful "value added" tool to attract and retain new customers while helping to eliminate costly paper handling and teller interactions in an increasingly competitive banking environment. - advertisement -

Brick-to-click banks Today, most large national banks, many regional banks and even smaller banks and credit unions offer some form of online banking, variously known as PC banking, home banking, electronic banking or Internet banking. Those that do are sometimes referred to as "brick-to-click" banks, both to distinguish them from brick-and-mortar banks that have yet to offer online banking, as well as from online or "virtual" banks that have no physical branches or tellers whatsoever. The challenge for the banking industry has been to design this new service channel in such a way that its customers will readily learn to use and trust it. After all, banks have spent generations earning our trust; they aren't about to risk that on a Web site that is frustrating, confusing or less than secure. Most of the large banks now offer fully secure, fully functional online banking for free or for a small fee. Some smaller banks offer limited access or functionality; for instance, you may be able to view your account balance and history but not initiate transactions online. As more banks succeed online and more customers use their sites, fully functional online banking likely will become as commonplace as automated teller machines.

Virtual banks If you don't mind foregoing the teller window, lobby cookie and kindly bank president, a "virtual" or e-bank, such as Virtual Bank or Giant Bank, may save you very real money. Virtual banks are banks without bricks; from the customer's perspective, they exist entirely on the Internet, where they offer pretty much the same range of services and adhere to the same federal regulations as your corner bank. Virtual banks pass the money they save on overhead like buildings and tellers along to you in the form of higher yields, lower fees and more generous account thresholds. The major disadvantage of virtual banks revolves around ATMs. Because they have no ATM machines, virtual banks typically charge the same surcharge that your brickand-mortar bank would if you used another bank's automated teller. Likewise, many virtual banks won't accept deposits via ATM; you'll have to either deposit the check by mail or transfer money from another account. Advantages of online banking Convenience: Unlike your corner bank, online banking sites never close; they're available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they're only a mouse click away. Ubiquity: If you're out of state or even out of the country when a money problem arises, you can log on instantly to your online bank and take care of business, 24/7. Transaction speed: Online bank sites generally execute and confirm transactions at or quicker than ATM processing speeds. Efficiency: You can access and manage all of your bank accounts, including IRAs, CDs, even securities, from one secure site. Effectiveness: Many online banking sites now offer sophisticated tools, including account aggregation, stock quotes, rate alerts and portfolio managing programs to help you manage all of your assets more effectively. Most are also compatible with money managing programs such as Quicken and Microsoft Money. Disadvantages of online banking Start-up may take time: In order to register for your bank's online program, you will probably have to provide ID and sign a form at a bank branch. If you and your spouse wish to view and manage your assets together online, one of you may have to sign a durable power of attorney before the bank will display all of your holdings together. Learning curve: Banking sites can be difficult to navigate at first. Plan to invest some time and/or read the tutorials in order to become comfortable in your virtual lobby. Bank site changes: Even the largest banks periodically upgrade their online programs, adding new features in unfamiliar places. In some cases, you may have to re-enter account information. The trust thing: For many people, the biggest hurdle to online banking is learning to trust it. Did my transaction go through? Did I push the transfer button once or twice? Best bet: always print the transaction receipt and keep it with your bank records until it shows up on your personal site and/or your bank statement.