Purpose COVID-19 has become a global challenge with a significant rate of prevalence, and it has exerted devastating consequences in epidemic, economic and social terms Therefore, a number of studies have already been, or are now being, conducted on the detrimental effects of the virus In this respect, a question may arise: Is there any possibility to turn the threat of the virus outbreak into an opportunity in some sectors such as the banking industry? In this research, the effects of COVID-19 outbreak as an intervening element on the acceptance of branchless banking were studied Design/methodology/approach In this research, the factors affecting the acceptance and development of branchless banking in Iran at the time of COVID-19 outbreak were identified by systematically studying the theoretical framework, conducting further research and interviewing the experts;then, a causal loop diagram of the problem in the proposed case study and the flow rate model were presented Findings The simulation results showed that banking transactions and a bank's financial resources would increase by implementing the package policy of reducing the number of branches, promoting incentive policies and increasing the budget rate of the bank in Information Technology (IT) Further, by promoting customers' acceptance of new technologies, the spread of COVID-19 can be viewed as a positive factor, or even a catalyst, in the acceptance and development of branchless banking in Iran Originality/value Based on the proposed model, the difficulties faced by individuals during the spread of COVID-19 could act as justifiable incentives to boost appropriate organizational preparations for making changes to the classic working processes Processes such as telecommuting, job rotation and so on are among these changes

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Simulation of the effect of COVID-19 outbreak on the development of branchless banking in Iran: case study of Resalat Qard-al-Hasan Bank

Despite the proliferation of technology enabled services, customer adoption of digital services like e-banking and m-banking is very low. Security concerns pertaining to these services are considered to be one of the most crucial factors to deter an end user to use the service. Efforts have been made in this study to list down various possible security concerns from a multi-stakeholder perspective, namely the perspectives of the end user and the service provider. While some generic findings have been established through the review of literature regarding digital services, greater focus has been given to a detailed exploration of technology enabled banking services like e-banking and m-banking.

Information Security concerns in Digital Services: Literature review and a multi-stakeholder approach

Article history: Received August 25, 2013 Received in revised format 19 September 2013 Accepted 23 October 2013 Available online November 11 2013 One of the most important techniques for development of internet banking is to encourage people to do their daily banking transactions through internet facilities. In this paper, we present an empirical study to find out whether perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness as well as trust could influence on internet banking. The proposed study was implemented in one of Iranian banks in city of Tehran, Iran using structural equation modeling. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.90, which validates the overall questionnaire. Using structural equation modeling, the survey has concluded that perceived ease of use (β=0.18, p-value=0.000), perceived usefulness (β=0.24, p-value=0.000) and trust (β=0.55, p-value=0.000) had positive and meaningful impact on internet banking. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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An empirical investigation on factors influencing intention of use of internet banking

Despite the great deal of research that has been conducted in the technology adoption domain, there is still a need to empirically investigate factors that influence an individual’s intention to adopt a new technology. Literature review in this field shows that emotional dimensions (i.e., optimism, innovativeness, skepticism and discomfort) related to technology readiness in terms of understanding an individual’s intention to adopt a technology has been neglected. This research developed a more comprehensive model to investigate factors that influence individuals to use Internet banking. This is done by incorporating emotional dimensions related to technology readiness construct in the decomposed theory of planned behavior. In this theory, the decomposition approach provides a more complete set of antecedents that provide a better explanation of the intention to use the Internet banking service, thus enhancing the practical contributions of this study. This study applied the questionnaire survey method to collect primary data. Subjects for this study were 1198 bank customers of four banks in Yemen. Structural equation modeling was employed as the main statistical technique. The empirical results indicate that all the main beliefs, including technology readiness as the new construct of antecedents, have a significant effect on behavioral intention. The findings showed the effects of antecedents on main beliefs were significant with the exception of peers/colleagues and government, which were not supported. Approximately 64% of the total variance of intention was explained by this proposed model indicating that the addition of the technology readiness construct has increased the model’s explanatory capability. The results reveal that the model provides a better understanding of factors that influence the intention to use Internet banking.

Factors affecting customer usage intention of internet banking services in Yemen

South African home users of the Internet use it to perform various everyday functions. These functions include, but are not limited to, online shopping, online gaming, social networking and online banking. Home users of online banking face multiple threats, such as phishing and social engineering. These threats come from hackers attempting to obtain confidential information, such as online banking authentication credentials, from home users. It is, thus, essential that home users of online banking be made aware of these threats, how to identify them and what countermeasures to implement to protect themselves from hackers. In this respect, information security awareness (ISA) programmes are an effective way of making the home users of online banking aware of both the threats they face and the countermeasures available to protect themselves from these threats. South African banks have to comply with certain legal requirements when implementing information security awareness initiatives. Non- compliance or failure to demonstrate due care and due diligence, should a security incident occur, will result in financial penalties for the bank as well as possible brand damage and loss of customers. Banks implement international best practice recommendations in an effort to comply with legislation. These include recommendations for information security awareness. This research proposes a framework which, predominantly, can be applied when determining and comparing information security best practice recommendations and information security legal requirements for online banking. The primarily aim of this paper is to investigate whether the implementation of best practices are sufficient to comply with legal requirements. A selected list of information security best practices was investigated for best practice recommendations while a selected list of information security legislation was also investigated for legal requirements imposed on South African banks. A gap analysis was performed on both these recommendations and requirements to determine whether the implementation of best practice recommendations results in compliance with legal requirements. The gap analysis found that the implementation of best practice recommendations does not result in compliance with legal requirements. Accordingly, the outcome of this research highlights the importance of applying such a framework in a comprehensive fashion to understand the legal requirements imposed and ensure that adequate controls are in place for achieving compliance.

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Betül Bayrakdar

Papers

To develop an education system for secure internet banking: GIBES