Journal of Internet Computing and Services(JICS) 2020. Oct.: 21(5): 75-85 75 Consumers attitude towards Internet banking services in an underdeveloped country: A case of Pokhara, Nepal ☆ Deepanjal Shrestha 1 Tan Wenan 2 Neesha Rajkarnikar 3 Seung Ryul Jeong 4* ABSTRACT The application of Internet technology has created enormous impact on banking sector with the implementation of many techno-oriented services like Internet banking, EFT, branchless banking, Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions etc. Study of customer’s attitude in terms of trust, perceived risk and ease of use of a particular technology is as an important parameter for acceptance or rejection of a technology. To explore the customers’attitude for Internet banking this research is undertaken. The research is carried out in Pokhara valley which is the second largest city and tourism capital of Nepal. The study employs descriptive research design with stratified sampling procedure for eight top commercial banks. A set of 25 customers is taken from each selected 8 banks making a sample size of 200 respondents. A fixed set of question related to demographic factors is provided personally or by visiting the location of the customers of Internet banking service and collected accordingly. Reliability test is performed using Cronbach's alpha and data is analyzed using inferential statistics to present the results of the study. This study provides knowledge on the current scenario of Internet banking and helps banks in cost saving, mass customization, product innovation, improved marketing and communication. This study is very important for financial institutions like banks, government agencies and business houses to understand the perception of customers towards Internet banking and technology as a whole. The study also supplements the gap in literature on technology and banking in Nepal and serves as an important knowledge base. ☞ keyword : Internet banking, customer attitude, technology acceptance, banking services, Pokhara, Nepal 1. Introduction Banking is the heart trade of commerce industry and the most dynamic part of economy which collects unused fund and mobilizes it in needed areas. Banking industry is advancing around the world with the use of information technology and becoming more competitive with new products, services and better facilities for its customers[1]. The adoption of information and communication technology in banking is widely referred to as electronic banking (E-banking) [1]. The technology has helped banking industry 1,2 School of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China 3 School of Energy Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, China 4 Graduate School of Business IT, Kookmin University, Seoul, South Korea * Corresponding author : (srjeong@kookmin.ac.kr) [Received 25 May 2020, Reviewed 15 June, Accepted 04 August 2020] ☆ A preliminary version of this paper was presented at ICONI 2019. to attract potential customer, retaining the existing ones and integrate business houses for new services with real-time transactions. Internet banking has both advantages as well as disadvantages. The advantages of internet banking includes saving of cost, saving of time, instant transaction and quick availability of information to the customer [2]. The disadvantages include feeling of uncertainty caused by third party (hackers), virtual mode operation and banking frauds [3]. Besides both the advantages and disadvantages, banking industry is unable to resist the demand for tehnological services and products. Pokhara is the second biggest city of Nepal. It is a tourism city and banking industry finds a lot of business prospect and application of its services in this city. There are around 50 banks that operate in the city, including the development and commercial banks [4]. Many technological services have been welcomed in the recent past by the customers of this city and there are rising demands for new kind of digital services. Internet banking introduced few years ago is a new kind of banking service introduced based J. Internet Comput. Serv. ISSN 1598-0170 (Print) / ISSN 2287-1136 (Online) http://www.jics.or.kr Copyright ⓒ 2020 KSII http://dx.doi.org/10.7472/jksii.2020.21.5.75