Digital account opening is on the rise after a pandemic slump.

Digital-only banks—and neobanks in particular—have emerged as potent threats to incumbents, and many disruptors that could further shake up the US banking market loom large. But incumbents can still secure digital account holders by adopting digital best practices championed by challengers.

More digital account opening, even for complex products. We expect digital account opening to continue slowly increasing through 2025. This holds true beyond just checking and savings accounts: Bank of America reported that most of its mortgage loans originated in digital channels in 2021. Fewer branch-exclusive services.

This report explores what’s driving UK neobanks’ growth and how incumbents can defend their share of the digital bank account holder market.

After taking a sizable hit to their business in 2020 from the coronavirus pandemic, digital-only banking players will host 6.5 out of every 10 digital account openings this year—driven by pent-up demand and the gradual return to normalcy.

Today, account opening is surging back after a slump during the coronavirus pandemic, and digital account opening (DAO) activity in particular is poised to benefit. However, banks will face stiff competition from neobanks and big tech companies that are raising the bar for digital account opening and count millions of customers among their existing client bases.

With its new digital identity verification feature, prospects don’t need to visit a branch to open a new account. Adoption of a similar offering by CIBC’s peers could further entrench incumbents against new entrants.

Veriff’s $100M round follows several other similar players’ mega-rounds. But digital ID regtechs will find differentiation increasingly hard.

Reducing friction is critical as US digital account opening bounces back: The number of new bank, credit union, and brokerage accounts will jump 24.1% in 2021 following a pandemic-related 8.4% slump last year, per our forecast. Adding a debit card to a virtual wallet. Users can bypass steps such as taking a photo of the card or manually entering card details in apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Meta juggles its Facebook present and metaverse future: The social network gains users, but recent losses could mean less money for metaverse R&D, giving VR platform competitors an opening.