Cost structures and new technology: a case study of a bank in South Africa
by Charles C. Okeahalam
International Journal of Financial Services Management (IJFSM), Vol. 1, No. 1, 2005

Abstract: There has been considerable development in the technology used to provide bank services. This has led to an increase in the number of channels which can be used to deliver bank services to retail clients. Accordingly, there is a need to assess the costs of using different technologies to provide services to retail bank clients. In this paper, detailed cost data are used to estimate two stochastic frontier models of the cost of providing retail services for clients who use the branch bank teller and those who use an information technology based approach. We remove the inefficiencies in the cost estimates of the two different technologies to enable forecasts of the cost consequences of shifts in technology to be based on production technique best practice. The findings suggest that benefits can be obtained by reducing inefficiency and by extending new technology more broadly to lower income retail clients.

Online publication date: Sat, 22-Oct-2005

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Financial Services Management (IJFSM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com