Assessing E-Banking Deployment Impact on Operational Cost Reduction in Banking System (The Case of Private & Public Banks of Iran)

Achieving competitive advantage is a basic component for banking system survival. Electronic banking is one of the key factors in this manner. Electronic banking can reduce costs of banks through mitigating: establishing expenditure of new branches, labor payments, printing and transportation of cash and notes and etc. So the important question which is raised is: whether electronic banking development in Iran has led to cost reduction or not? And is there any difference between private and public banks?This study investigates the effect of electronic banking development on eliminating of costs in public and private banks during 2006-2013. The results imply that electronic banking application could affect banking system costs significantly and this effect in private, banks have been much greater. Meanwhile, the branch size in public-owned banks has had a more considerable impact on cost volume.