Readiness for banking technologies in developing countries

Banks in developing countries are increasingly relying on innovative technologies such as cellphone banking, landline telephone banking, internet banking and automated teller machine (ATM) banking to penetrate existing markets and to create new markets. The banking industry in South Africa, as a developing economy, is regarded as sophisticated, but providing banking facilities to the 'unbanked' in South Africa remains a challenge. Consumers are not equally ready to adopt technology-based products, with technology readiness defined as "people's propensity to embrace and use new technologies for accomplishing goals in home life and at work". In the developing economy examined, a Technology Readiness Index (TRI) score of 2.53 for urban consumers was calculated. Such a TRI score is well below that of a developed economy such as the USA, whose score is 2.88. This could imply that consumers are not as ready to adopt technology, which needs to be taken into account by banks when doing product development and investing resources to increase customer satisfaction.