AUTHOR COPY www.palgrave-journals.com/fsm/ © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1363-0539 Journal of Financial Services Marketing Vol. 15, 2, 160–175 Correspondence: João F. Proença Faculty of Economics, University of Porto Rua Dr Roberto Frias, Porto 4200-464, Portugal E-mail: jproenca@fep.up.pt INTRODUCTION Financial services and banking in particular are businesses in which the relationships between institutions and their customers are Original Article The impact of the Internet upon bank marketing Received (in revised form): 10th June 2010 João F. Proença is Professor of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, at the University of Porto, Portugal. He is responsible for the PhD program in Business and Management Studies and for the Masters program in Services Management, both at the University of Porto. He has a PhD in Business from University of Porto and a Master of Science in Marketing from Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain. His main research focus is on business relationships, particularly business-to-business service marketing. He has published in a number of journals including the Journal of Marketing Management, the Information Systems and e-Business Management, the Journal of Macromarketing, the International Journal of Bank Marketing, the Journal of Customer Behaviour, the Service Business – An International Journal, the International Review on Public and Non Profit Marketing, the International Journal on WWW/Internet, the International Journal of Engineering and Industrial Management, and the Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, among others. Marta Martins Silva is analyst of candidacies to financial funds from EC in the North Regional Direction of Agriculture and Fisheries. She has a Master in Management Sciences and Marketing, University of Porto. Her main research focuses on business relationships and new technologies, both particularly applied to services. She has published in the International Journal on WWW/Internet and in the Portuguese and Brazilian Management Review. Teresa Fernandes is Lecturer of Marketing, Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Portugal. She has a PhD in Business and Management Studies, University of Porto, Portugal and has a Master of Science in Business Administration, University of Porto Business School, Portugal. Her main research focus is on relationship marketing and consumer relationships and she has published in the Journal of Marketing Management. ABSTRACT Information and communication are critical to developing customer relationships. Thus, new information and communication technologies (NICTs) became a key knowledge tool for the organisation within a relationship marketing strategy. Retail banking is a good example of a sector in which the virtualisation of relationships is increasing. However, there is no consensus as to whether banking relationships are strengthened or weakened by the use of technology. This article discusses the virtualisation of the interaction processes between banks and their customers and analyses the influence of the Internet on these relationships. A questionnaire was distributed by mail to 340 Internet banking services’ users. A principal components analysis and a multiple regression analysis were conducted in order to discuss the relationship between the identified dimensions of Internet banking and relationship marketing. The research finds three factors related to the use of Internet banking which strengthen the relationships between banks and their customers: the intensity of Internet use, the diversity of access locations and the diversity of Internet applications. From a managerial point of view, these findings have implications for the development of new relationship approaches based on technology. Journal of Financial Services Marketing (2010) 15, 160–175. doi:10.1057/fsm.2010.12 Keywords: internet banking; relationship marketing; internet marketing