Online banking, also known as virtual, internet, or e-banking, is an electronic payment system that offers customers of a bank or other financial institution the ability to complete a variety of financial transactions through the bank's website. Because online banking is heavily dependent on Internet access and penetration, the first e-banking services were launched in New York in the early 1980s, dubbed "Home Banking". Today, account management via online banking is very popular.
While e-banking has been around for some time, mobile banking is a relatively new service offered by financial institutions. Due to the growing popularity of smartphones, more and more banks are developing their own mobile banking applications. In 2015, 90% of US bank customers had used mobile banking to check their balance or recent transactions in the last 12 months. Some banks are hard at work developing new tools in addition to the traditional bank account management services available through their smartphone apps.