Abstract:
The application of Information and Communication Technology into the financial landscape has generated several issues that affect the away customers perceive the services they receive via Electronic Funds Transfer channels and consequently affected bank-customer relationship. Empirical studies seem not to have been conducted on e-payment dispute resolution in Nigeria and the effect on bank-customer relationship. The study involved an assessment of electronic funds transfer dispute resolution on bank-customer relationship of selected banks in Akure, Ondo State. Using a descriptive research design, a sample size of 384 and 70 customers and staff of selected banks respectively were purposively selected and used as respondents for the survey. Staff respondents are those directly involved in the rendering e-banking services to customers. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire with acceptable reliability of variables between 0.802 and 0.904. The mean rank show that the highest effectiveness exists for accessibility of the complaint system to the customers, followed by customer-focused and visibility but responsiveness only moderately effective. Mean rank indicated that ATM / PIN / POS disputes, wrong transfer due to customer’s error, credit card limit, unauthorized charges on the debit card or credit card and counterfeit or skimmed cards are the dominant dispute areas in all the banks. The mean rank from general perception also revealed that the channels being used for dispute handling are in the following descending order of usage: help desk, dedicated telephone number, dedicated e-mail address, and webchat. The study also revealed that staff of the banks have a ‘very high’ awareness level for all the Electronic Funds Transfer dispute resolution procedures compared to the awareness level of the customers. The results of regression analysis established that disputes resolution could account for 17.3 %, 12.3 %, 10.1 %, and 30.6 % of the changes in customer focus, visibility, accessibility, and responsiveness respectively and 30.6 % of bank-customers relationship. It was concluded that Electronic Funds Transfer dispute resolution has a significant effect on bank-customer relationship in the study area. It was suggested that, since the banking system is gradually moving to full automation of their operations, there should be improvement in ICT infrastructure to meet up with this development in order to achieve a near error-free e-banking/e-payment system.
Key Words: Electronic Funds Transfer, Dispute Resolution, Bank-Customer Relationship, Selected Deposit Money Bank
