1 Journal of Accounting, Business and Finance Research ISSN: 2521-3830 Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1-11, 2020 DOI: 10.20448/2002.83.97.107 E-Banking Payment Instruments and Deposit Money Banks' Performance in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation Stephen E. Ughulu 1 Abraham O. Agbonkhese 2 1 Department of Banking and Finance, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria. 2 Department of Economics, Admiralty University of Nigeria, Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. Abstract This paper carried out an empirical investigation of the impact of e-banking payment instruments on the performance of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria for the period 2009 to 2017. The major findings of the paper showed that ATM exerted a negative effect on ROA but was significant at the 5% level; exerted a positive effect on ROE at the 5% level, and negative effect on NPM at the 5% level. POS exerted a negative effect on ROE but was significant at the 5% level; it exerted positive and significant impact on NPM; WB exerted positive and significant effect on ROA and NPM at the 5% level. These findings were robust and impressive as the value of the ECM(-1), -0.3988, -0.4857, -0.5863 and -22682 appeared with the right signs. The coefficients of determination, R 2 , in the three columns showed that all the independent variables accounted for over 50% fluctuations in the dependent variables. The paper concluded that e-banking payment instruments have great potentials in enhancing the performance of the DMBs. It was therefore recommended that the DMBs make it a matter of policy to continually upgrade the efficiency of these all-important instruments to meet the expectations and satisfaction of their clients and hence shareholders' wealth. Keywords: E-Banking payment instruments DMBs' performance Nigeria. JEL Classification: G21. Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Publisher: Scientific Publishing Institute Received: 6 January 2020 Revised: 10 February 2020 Accepted: 19 February 2020 Published: 2 March 2020 Funding: This study received no specific financial support. Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. 1. Introduction Generally speaking, the banking industry is the most regulated and crucial in any economy since it mobilizes money from the excess economic units for on-lending to the insufficiency economic units for investment and consumption purposes. Thus, the banking system channels funds from savers to borrowers. This intermediation process determines, to a large extent, the efficient allocation of savings and invariably the performance of banks. It is, however, important to state at this outset that banks also carry out other non- interest income activities such as the deployment of electronic payment instruments to enhance their overall income. When these functions are simultaneously and efficiently and effectively performed, banks' profitability increases, their flow of funds rises in the process, and these would engender better quality service to customers and ultimately shooting up their financial performance. Until relatively recently, banks were confronted with the enormous problems of satisfying customers' needs in the areas of deposit and payment functions. These culminated in long delays in the settlement of cheques among banks, unnecessary time consumed in banks as customers waited patiently in long queues for their turn, while mistakes resulting from manual work lead to frequent criminally-induced circumstances.