Electronic Banking Applications as a Means of Digital Communication and Their Role in Making Information Accessible and Providing Banking Services to the Public: A Field Study in the City of Zawiya

This study aimed to investigate the role of electronic banking applications as a means of digital communication in providing information and delivering banking services to the public in the city of Zawiya. It sought to measure the level of public use of these applications, identify the main types of information and services obtained through them, examine the obstacles encountered by users, and assess their overall evaluation of the role of these applications. The study adopted a descriptive research methodology. An electronic questionnaire was administered to a purposive sample of 425 users of electronic banking applications in the city of Zawiya. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The statistical analyses included reliability and validity tests, descriptive statistics, a one-sample T-test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The study reached several findings, the most significant of which were that 99.1% of the sample members used electronic banking applications, while more than half (57.2%) used them several times a week, indicating a high level of reliance on these applications. The results also showed that the most frequently accessed information was “checking account balance” (85.0%). The most frequently used service was “checking balance and account statement” (72.0%), followed by “money transfer” (65.1%). Technical obstacles, particularly “weak Internet connectivity” (55.8%) and “application downtime or slow service” (49.6%), were identified as the most prominent challenges facing users. The results further indicated that all dimensions of the study—information accessibility, service provision, and overall evaluation—achieved high levels, with a mean score of 2.62 for overall evaluation, 2.58 for information accessibility, and 2.57 for service provision, out of a maximum of 3.00. In contrast, the obstacles dimension recorded a low mean score of 1.40. The findings also revealed a very strong positive correlation between information accessibility and service provision (r = 0.876). Furthermore, all four main hypotheses of the study were statistically supported. The study recommended improving Internet network infrastructure, developing banking applications to ensure their stability and ease of use, expanding the range of available services, organizing awareness campaigns, and strengthening security measures. It also recommended utilizing the strong relationship between information accessibility and service provision to develop banking applications in an integrated manner.