Is Mauritius Ready to E-Bank? From A Customer and Banking Perspective

The objective of the paper is to analyse the supply and demand for internet banking in a small island economy of Mauritius. The study first probes into the extent to which internet banking is adopted among Mauritians and investigates the factors that drive the use of this new delivery channel. We examine whether the adoption of internet banking is influenced by consumer individual characteristics as well as perceived ease of use, perceived security and privacy and reluctance to change. Second, we analyse the impact of internet banking on banks’ performance and the hurdles they encounter in encouraging clients to use this new technology. Our consumer survey covers a sample of 400 individuals of different age groups and educational levels in both urban and rural areas. The second survey focuses on the two largest banks in Mauritius. Logistic regression method to survey data was used. Our results reveal that perceived ease of use and perceived security and privacy were important factors that influence the use of internet banking among customers. However, reluctance to change is a major obstacle to the use of internet banking. This problem has been further encountered by banks in encouraging customers’ adoption of their internet banking service.