2012年12月英语六级考试阅读全真模拟（1）_第2页

　　Research suggesting internet banking growth story
　　•According to Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2005, around 53 million Americans conduct majority of their banking online. This is approximately a quarter of all adults and this has risen over 47% since 2002.
　　•Aite Group forecasts that by 2010, 13% of checking accounts will be opened online in the United States, up from 3% in 2006.
　　•Global e-commerce activity is currently estimated to be approximately 10 trillion US dollars. Increasingly, Internet banking will be used as a payment mode either using physical or virtual credit cards or though fund transfer or direct debits (借贷). Currently physical card plays a major role in these global payments with or without using Internet Banking.
　　Security threats over internet—a need for introspection
　　In contrast to the growth stories, parallel research by organization such as Mintel in USA suggests a flip side of the story. The study by Mintel indicates around two thirds of 40% younger consumers 18-34 are turning way from online banking services, as they “don’t trust transactions on the Internet”. Therefore a huge introspection is needed from bankers for planning to counter the security threats in terms of hacking, Trojan horses (木马软件) and several other modes of attacks on customer as well as banks.
　　Several Banks across the globe had to either compensate customers or to accept the responsibilities of security of their Internet banking channel. A security threat is a major deterrent for consumers aggressively using Internet banking. However it is also seen that perception of threat is much higher in the minds of consumers in comparison to the actual threat itself. Banks have to aggressively work to offer insurances or guarantee to the customers, which may help to secure huge potential market. But this still leaves with issue of data floating around with the fraudster (骗子), which may not be resolved with guarantees.
　　Some learning by banks
　　•Internet is one of most cost effective channel of conducting banking operations. It is estimated that Internet banking offers up to minimum of 60% cost saving over normal offline banking. But this numbers keep changing especially in web 2.0 environments.
　　•Bankers across the world have realized that customers using online banking offer relatively loyal customers to the bank. But can they take this for granted, as new online financial service community (especially non-banks) is posing strong threats?
　　•According to Gartner, on an average, companies save about 45 cents every time they send an account statement electronically instead of by paper mail. A bank that sends monthly account statements by paper mail to 5 million customers would spend $27 million more than if it sent electronic statements. (So much less wood saved for countering global warming.)www.examｗ.com
　　•Branch managers (especially of traditional banks) across the globe have realized that Internet banking offers is not a hindrance or competition to their business growth, but it complements the operations as it actually reduces the excessive burden of servicing customers.
　　•Banks are offering customized reporting for customers to analyze their income, expenditure items and this helps individual families to study and budget their spending from e-banking statements. But bankers need to watch as to how many percent of customers actually use these flashy customized gadgets or are they spending money at wrong places.
　　•Can we devise threats-free and full-secured environment, where users will freely conduct transactions? I pray this would be true in next decade or so.
　　•Mobile banking may cross over Internet Banking volume within less than a decade. Internet channel heads, better watch out.