Background
The topic of electronic finance has received much attention lately (cf. Economides (1996), McAndrews and Stefanidis (2000), Claessens, Glaessner, and Klingebiel (2000, 2001), Long (2000), Allen, Hawkins, and Sato (2001), Sato and Hawkins(2001), Banks (2001)).
Fan, Stallaert, and Whinston (2000) have recognized and argued for the necessity of including financial intermediaries in any formal study of electronic finance.