The United States still has a heavily paper-based retail payment system when compared with many other developed economies, but the shift to electronic payments has been bigger and more decisive than commonly perceived. For the first time ever, check use declined in the mid-1990s, and among...

Internet banking is receiving great attention in the banking industry and the regulatory community. As with other areas of e-commerce, discussions about Internet banking often proceed without reference to the actual state of market developments. This paper describes the current state of Internet...

Banking over the Internet has attracted increasing attention over the past several years from bankers and other financial services industry participants, the business press, regulators, and lawmakers, both in the United States and in other countries. In part, this is due to the rapid and...

Banking over the Internet is attracting a great deal of attention in the banking and regulatory communities, and developments in this new delivery channel are the subject of numerous articles in the banking press. Despite widespread interest in and concerns about this subject, there is little...

Many countries around the world have experienced banking crises in the past two decades, and all countries are witnessing substantial changes in the structure and nature of banking. These developments have led national and multilateral policymakers to focus increased attention on the crucial...

The author compares the U.S. with other G-10 countries regarding key aspects of permissible banking activities. One conclusion is that banks in the U.S. face greater restrictions, and possibly more intensive supervisory oversight, than do banks in most other G-10 countries. Second, the majority...

U.S. banks are increasingly outsourcing an expanding range of their operations to third-party service providers. Recent industry estimates show that outsourcing by U.S. banks accounts for almost 20 percent of their information technology services spending Importantly, the prospect of...

The market share of foreign-owned banks (subsidiaries, branches, and agencies) in the United States grew dramatically during the 1980s and early 1990s, amid fears that foreign banks were out-competing U.S.-owned banks in their home market. However, more recent data show that growth of the market...