Introduction

Nobody would deny the many positive things technology has done in our lives. In every aspect of human endeavor, you will see how technology has made things easier and life sweeter in general. Whether its in health, education, transportation, insurance, etc the positive contribution of modern technology is very obvious to all.

In this article, I will like to look at how technology have enhanced the banking sector as we see it today. To begin, it would be nice to write about the past - how people save money in the past.

How people save money before modern technology arrived

Money has been around even before technology came into the whole picture. People that lived before us devised various ways of keeping money safe and saved for a long time. For the purpose of this article and comprehension, I will just describe two of the methods people used to save money. They are as follows:

1. Digging a secret hole in the ground: This was one of the vary well-known ways of saving money. When there were no banking institutions, and during the time farming and owning land was common, digging a hole on the ground was popular. The saver usually is the owner of the land. When he wants to save money other valuables, he will find a secret place, dig a hole and put the money there. He will use any form of marker to identify the place he dug the hole. Otherwise, the money is gone.

2. Savings box: This was very popular in the past and still used by some people today. People make a box not just for money, but also for other valuables. The box might vary in size depending on what the saver wants to save. Some boxes where made to hold other valuables like gold and costly clothing. This kind of box is usally bigger. Other boxes are designed just for the money. So they were not made that large. Which ever one, the boxes are strong and secure, so that the money or other valuables in it, are safe.

No that we are in the era of modern technology, banking has been transformed into some so convenient that you can do it from the comfort of your home. Here are some services offered by banks, that would not have been possible were it not for technology.

Banking Services brought about byTechnology

Below are 5 services offered today by many banks, that technology really made possible.

1. Account Opening: This is one banking service that gives you access to all others. Opening a bank account and making it work does not necessarily require your going to the bank. With a small phone, you can dial a USSD and follow the prompts to open a bank account. One of the banks I use have this service and I have been able to open accounts for some of my friends and it is functional. It takes just under 5 minutes and you have your account number ready to make your first deposit.

2. Utility Payments: From the comfort of you home, you can pay for utility services such as television subscriptions, electricity bills, schools fees and many other fees. Most modern banking apps give you the functionality to be able to pay for utility services. This has made life really easier for us today.

3. Data/Airtime Purchase: You can buy data or airtime from your bank directly using your mobile app or USSD. I cannot actually remember the last time I bought airtime offline. I usually buy from my bank and its easy to handle all my finances from one account.

4. Money Transfer: This is the most basic feature that you see in all banking apps or USSD. The ability to move money from your account to another account can now be done within minutes. All you need to do is have the account number of the receiver and you are ready to go. Again, technology has made it not just easier, but also safer through mobile money transfers.

5. POS: Point-of-Sales outlets have brought modern banking to our doorsteps. Using the POS machine, it is easy to do lots of things such as cash withdrawals, cash deposits, money transfers and many other things. You can even change your ATM PIN using a POS machine, although this is usually warned against.

POS illustration from Pixabay

These and many other services have been made possible through the use of technology in banking. While we enjoy these services, technology in banking has created some problems too. Lets look at just 3 of them.

Three problems of Technology in banking

1. Delayed Transactions: Sometimes, its really very slow to move money from one account to another because of some challenges such as poor network coverage. As a result, sometimes funds are debited from the sender's account but not credited to the receivers account. Currently, I am still trying to retrieve money I paid through my mastercard online since 6th June 2022. I was debited but the receiver was not credited.

2. Hidden Charges: Banks have no deduct money from users accounts for almost everything. Sometimes the charges are not expressly announced or made known to the customer. Some charges include ATM card maintenance, deposit charges, withdrawal charges, and many other charges. This is a sad way to steal customers money and its all too common in the banking sector.

3. Scam: Many people have lost money because somehow, their details got into the hand of criminals who use technology to steam personal identity and them do away with the customers money. Some have been called to send their details for one upgrade or the other. At the end of the day, if one is not careful, one becomes another victim of scammers. This has been made possible by technology.

Scammer illustration from Pixabay

These are some problems created by technology in banking. Now let me briefly look out how the banks I use perform in terms of technology banking.

My bank's technology rating

I own accounts in two banks. For the sake of privacy, I will not mention their names. The two banks are the top technology banks in Nigeria. They are not perfect, but when it comes to modern, technology-driven banking services, they are good. I have used the Mastercard they issued to pay for web hosting and other services online. They support that. They also have intuitive mobile apps and USSD banking. All these are channels provided because of technology in banking. Am fine with these two banks.

Conclusion

Technology in banking is such a welcome development. It has made it easy to access banking services no matter where you are. Besides, it has limited the cost of physically coming to the bank each time one wants to do some transactions. I believe the challenges listed above and many others will be addressed soonest so that we enjoy a hassle-free banking services enhanced by technology.