The role and importance of distribution on the banking services market have changed fundamentally in the recent 30-40 years. As a result of development of telecommunication and information technology, the developed network of bank's branches has gradually stopped being one of the most important competitive advantages on the banking services market. The modern technology made the commencement of the sale of products possible over the phone, through ATM or by means of PC. In this manner a very strong entry barrier to the banking services market, i.e. the possession of a large number of branches, has been significantly limited. This process has contributed to the growth of competition in the sector, allowing new players to appear in the market, including also those from outside the financial services sector (e.g. shopping networks, hypermarkets).

On the other hand, owing to the technological progress, the number of distribution channels for the banking products has significantly expanded, which contributed to the growth in customers' satisfaction and improvement of the quality of services. With regard to the increase in the number of sales channels the banks were forced to introduce a distribution management system. These actions carried out in line with marketing principles resulted in establishing a model of a multi-channel distribution as a distribution strategy contributing to the best satisfaction of customers' needs.

The present development of different remote distribution channels is limited by a security barrier, i.e. threats perceived by current and potential customers in relation to using one of forms of electronic distribution. The banks try to counteract this phenomenon by constantly developing the security systems and conducting educational actions presenting the threats identified, among others, when using the internet.

The development of electronic forms of distribution is related to a continuous desire of financial institutions to improve the effectiveness of their actions. Enabling the customers to use banking services 24 hours/7 days a week was connected, among others, with transferring a large part of operations previously executed by the bank to the customers. This phenomenon leads to significant savings of the bank resulting from, among others, the staff reduction and drop of operating costs thanks to the computerisation and automation of settlements.