Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) systems cover a wide gamut of applications. Some of the latest gaining popularity are bank-by-phone and sophisticated corporate cash management applications. Basically the systems fall into one of two categories: Retail, which is consumer oriented and Wholesale, which is corporation oriented. This panel will be discussing both types of systems. While many attributes of Retail and Wholesale EFT systems are similar, there are significant differences between them and this will be highlighted during the discussion.

Much of the promotional hype, congressional interest, and consumerist activity surrounding Electronic Funds Transfer Systems (EFTS) has involved the retail side of banking; i.e. handling consumer transactions electronically at the teller window, through automated teller machines, and at the point of sale. Wholesale EFTS, on the other hand, deals with the electronic movement of funds and funds-related messages between banks on their own behalf and on behalf of their corporate customers.