Customers' adoption and use of e-banking services: The South African perspective

South African retail banks, like retail banks elsewhere in the world, are investing significant amounts of capital into the provision of e-banking services in the hope that this will translate into higher returns and market penetration. However, the rapid adoption of these e-banking services is still in doubt. Any strategy aimed at achieving widespread adoption and use of these e-banking services rests on solid understanding of factors that influence customers' adoption and use of the services. This study adds trust in the e-banking system, customer awareness of e-banking services and perceived self-efficacy, together with the TAM constructs of perceived usefulness and ease of use to improve the understanding of the predicators of Internet and cellphone banking services adoption in South Africa. For this study, a cross-sectional descriptive survey design was used to obtain data from 394 customers of the four major retail banks in South Africa through self-administered questionnaires. The findings of the study confirm that the factors mentioned above contribute significantly to Internet and cellphone banking adoption and use. In this study, customers' trust in the e-banking system was found to be the strongest predicator of Internet and cellphone banking services adoption, unlike previous studies in different environmental-contexts where perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were widely held to affect the adoption of Internet and cell phone banking. This paper highlights the managerial implications of the findings on the efforts by retail banks in South Africa aimed at encouraging widespread adoption of e-banking services.