I. Introduction
This is what a friend of mine, who happens to be a reputed Internet consultant, told me a couple of weeks ago, when in the course of a boring dinner when we were talking about the use of Internet as a privileged means for the rendering of banking, insurance and investment services (jointly, "financial services"). He was trying to convince me that the current use of Internet to render financial services will be considered a marvellous ancient jewel in five years time, when a new form of Internet banking spreads across society and reaches the most remote places on Earth.
Although some optimistic and open-minded people may think that Internet is the best possible means to carry out those day-to-day tasks that most consumers loathe (except my wife) like shopping, paying bills or any other financial transactions, the OECD reports reveal that the use of the Internet to conduct financial services is still fairly new. Even nowadays, the volume of financial services
