Technological Innovations and in the Banking Sector: An Evaluation of the Rate of Diffusion of the Automated Teller Machine

Abstract

The internet widely regarded as the third wave of revolution, (after the industrial revolution and theagricultural revolution) heralds the age of electronic revolution and is fast becoming the centralnervous system of a universal consumer marketplace and an essential means of conducting andcoordinating business activities.For the banking sector, the internet marks the transition from the brick and mortar stage of banking tothe branchless stage. In a word, Information Technology (IT) has moderated the constraints of time,space, and information access in world trade and commerce as a whole.The growing popularity of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for online bill payment, for instance, ispaving the way for a paperless universe where cheques, stamps, envelopes, and paper bills willbecome obsolete.In other words, global electronic network with its increasing power and pervasiveness is speedilydriving the entire globe towards a converging commonality and constitutes the backbone of today’sworld economy, just as railroads, steamships, telegraphs and postal systems formed the transportationand communications infrastructure of 19th century industrial economies.