Electronic banking and customer satisfaction with reference to debit card holders in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The anticipated gigantic changes in the banking and finance industry that are taking place around the world, have redesigned the competitive landscape of the industry with many digitalized services. This sparking trend has fortified many financial institutes in Sri Lanka to metamorphose its operation with international standards thriving competitive environment. Electronic payments and online baking facilities were few such innovative solutions that shift the entire economy towards a cashless society. Debit Card is a multipurpose electronic card that facilitates 24-hour customer services has now become a mandatory banking facility in Sri Lanka, therefore billions of money have been already invested by banks in the facility. By today the card is extensively applied everywhere, however, the application of debit cards is somewhat questionable especially in regional areas. Hence the objective of this study was to identify the level of customer awareness about debit card facilities and customers' satisfaction with the card. This deductive type quantitative study applied a questionnaire survey strategy and achieved its purpose through five causal hypotheses that tested the impact of convenience, security, prestige, rewards, availability of facilities on debit cardholders’ satisfaction. Randomly, selected individual customers (397) contributed to the survey on which different statistical (correlation and regression) tests were employed to meet the research objective. There were 51.1% of male respondents in the sample in which 73.6 % were married. The majority of respondents belonged to the 26-35 age category and above 50% of them had up to A/L education. All most of the respondents had awareness about the facilities of the debit card, however, very little usage was reported except withdrawal as still people comfortable with cash. Respondents had mostly use a debit card for expenses between 5000.00 and 50000.00. Finally, the study found that convenience and available facilities as significant factors that satisfy debit cardholders. Accordingly, convenience and available facilities of debit cards are the expound dimensions that upsurge debit card application in day to day transaction in Sri Lanka, therefore study strongly encourage banks to consider the aforementioned dimensions if they wish to uphold debit card usage in the country.

Keywords: Banks, Cashless transaction, Debit Card, Facility, Satisfaction