Less than 50% of US banks using customer data for personalisation

Ellie Duncan
07 Sep 2022

US financial institutions (FIs) are failing to capitalise on aggregated customer data to provide personalised services and are slow to form fintech partnerships, despite perceiving them as crucial to growth, according to new research.

More than half (61%) of the US banking professionals surveyed see fintech partnerships as key to their growth strategy and more than one-third reported that their financial institution had “multiple” fintech partnerships, a new report published by Texas-based financial experience provider Q2 revealed.

However, only 12% of the survey respondents said they have fintech partnerships and can add new ones quickly.

The report, ‘Survey: The State of Digital Banking 2022’, also found that 71% of financial institutions believe providing personalised digital experiences to business customers is “very important or critical”, rising to 89% for consumer customers.

But, while 73% reported having aggregated customer data across their processes and systems, fewer than half, at 47%, are using it to provide personalised services.

The survey found that more than half of banks are offering separate digital services to their consumer and business customers, with only 10% able to configurable a digital experience that enables FIs to mix consumer and business functionality as needed.

“Banks and credit unions realise the need to leverage the ever-expanding fintech ecosystem to develop competitive advantages and deliver better customer experiences, but they find themselves challenged to address this imperative strategically and holistically,” said Jonathan Price, EVP of emerging businesses and corporate and business development at Q2.

The findings of the survey, which was conducted by Arizent on behalf of Q2, are based on responses from 100 bank professionals.

When asked what they would consider an “essential outcome” of digital transformation, 62% identified the ability to offer innovative solutions that go beyond traditional banking, while 56% said the ability to offer personalised digital experience to consumers and 53% to businesses.