What is Internet Banking in 2020?

Internet banking is the system that provides the facility to the customer to conduct the financial and non-financial transactions from his net banking account. The user can transfer funds from his account to other accounts of the same bank/different bank using a website or an online application. The customer uses a resource and a medium to conduct financial transactions. The resource that a customer uses might be an electronic device like a computer, a laptop, or a mobile phone. The internet is the medium that makes the technology possible.

The facility of internet banking is provided through banks and the customer must be an account holder with any bank to get the facility available for him/her.

Features of Internet Banking

The customer using this facility can conduct transactional and non-transactional tasks including: 

• The customer can view account statements.
• The customer can check the history of the transactions for a given period by the concerned bank.
• Bank, statements, various types of forms, applications can be downloaded.
• The customer can transfer funds, pay any kind of bill, recharge mobiles, DTH connections, etc.
• The customer can buy and sell on e-commerce platforms.
• The customer can invest and conduct trade.
• The customer can book transport, travel packages, and medical packages.

The list of benefits a user can enjoy using internet banking is too lengthy, to sum up.

Advantages of Internet Banking

• The customers get permanent access to his/her bank anytime and anywhere.
• Transactions are safe and highly secure.
• Immediate funds transfer helps the user in time of urgent need.
• It saves valuable time of the users.

Security of Internet Banking

The financial information of a customer is important. This is the reason a customer trusts financial institutions. The financial institutions keep it on a high priority that the security of customers’ accounts shouldn’t face a breach. The financial institutions are using two types of security methods to make internet banking safe and secure:

Use of PIN/TANs –Under this system, a PIN is used to login and TANs are used to conduct transactions. TANs are one time passwords. TAN is sent to the customer via SMS on registered mobile number that corresponds with the login user id. It is valid for a short time frame.

Internet banking is conducted using web browsers with SSL enabled websites, so encryption is not an important issue. It also uses signature verification as a base. Under this method, the transactions done by the customer are signed and encrypted digitally. The smart cards or any other memory storable medium can be used to store keys for signature generation and encryption.