Only a few industries are actually making money through the Internet. The financial services industry is one of them, which in turn is causing the financial services industry to undergo a profound transformation. Despite headlines about Amazon.com, it is the financial services industry that has undergone the most dramatic changes due to the Internet. The entire financial industry is moving online: brokerage, banking, credit, mortgage, insurance, asset management and financial information. This paradigm shift has brought many new players to the financial services field who are quite powerful and influential, such as E*Trade, E*Credit, Wingspan and FinancialEngines. These and similar companies have empowered financial consumers in ways not foreseen just a few years ago. This has created a crisis for traditional firms that were later to realize the impact of the Internet. The past few years have seen a furious attempt by the traditional financial services companies, such as Merrill Lynch or Well Fargo, to develop business models suitable for the new era. This process will take years, resulting in a changed landscape where many firms will be absorbed or fail while others thrive. "The Electronic Finance Report" capitalizes on the tension between the new, online firms and the older, more established firms in the financial services. Each part of the book concentrates on one sector of the financial services industry and presents three points of view. First is an objective overview of that sector of the industry. The next two contributions are from a traditional financial firm and an online firm, respectively. The contributors will write about the opportunities and challenges in their particular sector. The specific topics each contributor (who will be senior policy makers, consultants, analysts, or strategic planners with an industry-wide perspective) will be asked to address include: market trends in terms of customers, economic pressure, technology etc; outlook for the next one to five years; and challenges presented by Internet companies in terms of business strategies, technology, marketing and competitiveness. The diversity of opinion from contributors in opposing camps gives this book its unique flavour. Contributors will cover brokerage, financial information, banking (retail and commercial), asset management, insurance and risk management.