Perception and acceptability of E-banking by consumers

Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. A motivated person is ready to act. How the motivated person actually acts is influenced by his or her perception of the situation. Perception depends not only upon the physical stimuli, but also on the stimuli's relation to the surroundings field and on the condition within the individual. People's behavior is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. Perception is understood as the act of seeing what is there to be seen which is influenced by the individual, the object and the situation. Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets the information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world. In simple terms, perception is why the same universe is viewed differently by different people. Acceptability relates to the intensity of adoption of a particular aspect. Electronic banking, also known as e-banking, virtual banking and online banking, is a service that allows customers to access their bank information, conduct financial transactions, make deposits, withdrawals and pay bills through the Internet without having to physically visit their bank. The present study was undertaken with an aim of understanding and comparing the perception towards and the acceptability of E-banking by 200 customers of two private and two public sector banks where the customers had been selected through quota sampling in Ludhiana, Punjab (India). The outcome of this process is discussed in this paper.