Robinhood has partnered with Gopuff to deliver cash that customers have withdrawn from their Robinhood bank accounts. Robinhood is building on its super-app strategy for Gen Zers and millennials to draw them in with entirely new financial products: It recently added trading for nontraditional assets as well as “event contracts” to trade bets with other users. The Gopuff cash delivery partnership blends premium banking services that younger consumers expect with the digital access and convenience they’re accustomed to.

PNC said this week that it would open more than 300 new or renovated branches by 2030, nearly 100 more than it had planned as of last year. The expansion is broad-based and includes branch investments in Florida, Tennessee, and Illinois. Branches are a crucial marketing tool for banks, even when their customers have largely migrated to digital channels—like an online retailer that has “showroom” stores with a curated selection of products. It’s not just about how many branches and where they are, but also how they are designed.

Another data-access domino fell this week as Charles Schwab followed Fidelity’s move to restrict credential-based access for fintechs and other third parties. Open banking for bank accounts has thrived in the private sector as banks, vendors, and trade groups have partnered to enable a rich ecosystem of fintechs and other software providers. Data security and liability are only reasonable excuses for FIs to kick third-parties out of their systems when they don’t have the resources to build alternative access methods.

Last week, Charles Schwab announced that it will acquire Forge Global for $660 million. Forge is a platform that lets retail investors buy and sell shares in private companies. Legacy financial services firms’ puts alternative assets on step closer to the mainstream. But the impact for retail investors remains to be seen. Companies that offer access to private shares have run into legal and financial trouble before, and the SEC has strict guidelines for who can invest in unregistered securities. Schwab is wise to tread carefully by limiting investments in private shares to the wealthiest investors to start.

Seventy percent of banking leaders believe agentic AI will “have a significant or game-changing impact on the banking industry,” according to an American Banker survey commissioned by SoundHound AI. For banks to move agentic AI tools from the pilot stage to wide rollouts, they’ll need a business case, a strategic roadmap, and a plan to promptly address tactical issues. Must-haves include strong AI governance, a modern data layer that unifies access to siloed business information, and a framework for customer trust.

Mercury—a fintech that serves startups, VC firms, and small businesses with banking products and services—announced $650 million in annualized revenue for 2025, up 30% from 2024’s year-end $500 million. Some banks have invested heavily in digital for business customers, betting that more sophisticated self-service will support market share growth. These investments mean that the business digital experience is increasingly a differentiator between banks. But it’s a half measure. This approach to growth is fighting the last war to avoid irrelevance—by catching up to where competitors are today.

In recent regulatory filings, JPMorgan and Bank of America (BofA) said they’re responding to government requests related to policies and processes around “providing, maintaining, or discontinuing financial products or services to certain clients or potential clients.” The fire politicians are stoking introduces reputational and business risks for banks among customers as well as the risk of regulatory action by agencies that have traditionally demanded rigorous screening of current and prospective customers.

At Bank of America’s (BofA) investor day, its first in over a decade, the bank said it spent more than $118 billion on technology in the last 10 years. In 2025, its annual spending on new technology initiatives will reach $4 billion out of a total of $12.7 billion. In the AI race, banks that aren’t already ahead will fall even further behind. Increasingly sophisticated automation as well as an AI-assisted jump in employee productivity mean AI investments quickly compound on themselves. Last month, JPMorgan said it had already broken even on its $2 billion AI investments.

Dave reported $150.8 million in revenue in Q3 2025, up 63% YoY, and a net income of $92 million. The neobank reported 843,000 new members, a 25% increase in debit card spend to $510 million, short-term advance loan originations of $2 billion, and a customer acquisition cost (CAC) of $19. Neobanks’ original positioning as scrappy underdogs fighting the good fight against banks has transformed. It is now a story about how neobanks carved out a new niche catering to underserved customers, mostly competing with other neobanks.

Robinhood will offer Gold members mortgage rates at least 0.75 percentage points “below the national average” and a $500 credit toward closing costs through a partnership with Sage Home Loans. Robinhood has grown from a single product (fee-free stock trading) into a universe of retail financial services that compete with directly with traditional financial institutions, require that it partner with them for licensed banking products and services, and supersede what traditional banks offer. Instead of being a scrappy upstart, it’s changing how consumers perceive financial products and services.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) urged the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to reject Coinbase’s application for a national trust charter, arguing that the application has “serious deficiencies.” The Trump administration’s crypto friendliness is a threat to banks as much as regulatory leniency and stablecoin clarity is a relief: A trust charter confers legitimacy on a crypto firm, but it doesn’t require deposit insurance. These standards may enable crypto companies to compete more vigorously with traditional institutions.

U.S. Bank and investment advisory firm Edward Jones announced co-branded checking account and credit card products, which will be distributed to Edward Jones clients through its advisors. The co-branded offering consolidates investment and banking products into a single digital experience. The U.S. Bank–Edward Jones partnership is just one approach that banks can take to capitalize on the Great Wealth Transfer and cross-sell between investment and retail banking products and services. With the mass-affluent segment in mind, banks can use partnerships to attract customers they might not otherwise reach for basic banking products, like deposit accounts and credit cards.

Nationwide Financial announced a $1.5 billion investment in technology through 2028, including $300 million for AI initiatives. The company aims to simplify business interactions and advance its data protection capabilities. A massive technical overhaul is a strategic choice and a yearslong commitment sponsored by the C-suite and endorsed by the board of directors. AI is a tool rather than a strategy. And without intent, telematics, analytics, automation, and copilots are just words.

Many consumers are opening new bank, credit card, and investment accounts and migrating some financial activities instead of switching entirely, per a J.D. Power study. Chime and SoFi led with conversion rates, and about half of Chime customers are primary, far exceeding large incumbents. FIs should carefully reconsider their approach to efficient customer acquisition and retention. Consumers may appear unwilling to make a clean break with their bank, but they try products offered by other institutions and slowly slip away if they like what they see.

JPMorgan Chase will launch a digital-only retail bank in Germany in 2026. And Santander revealed that its US digital-only retail bank, Openbank, attracted over $6 billion in deposits in its first year. For a traditional bank, running a digital-only bank is a strategic choice rather than the side project it may seem. Rebuilding the technology stack and experience from the ground up fosters necessary digital transformation and enables business growth in new markets. To break out of a mold, bankers should think big about their options: A small subsidiary built from scratch can reshape the business.

Wealthtech funding for 2025 is set to double last year’s figure and has already hit $4.2 billion as of September, according to a CB Insights report. And based on year-over-year hiring, three of the top five fastest-growing fintech segments fall under wealthtech. In our September 2025 report “Winning the Great Wealth Transfer in Wealth Management,” we noted that banks face three key considerations in competing against wealth techs: How to blend self-service and human connection, how to personalize services, and what investment vehicles to offer.

The branch is key to consumers’ choice of primary bank, but banks overall fall short of a compelling customer experience, according to a recent study from Adrenaline. Delivering a seamless, modern branch experience means breaking down silos between teams across digital, ATM, call center, and in-person channels. With customers expecting frictionless interactions, the old compartmentalized approach won’t work anymore. Branches need to offer pared down, basic services that are traditionally expected combined with consistent, high-touch interactions that dovetail with digital services.

Fidelity has introduced Solana trading for US retail and institutional investors. Solana is the digital currency native to the Solana public blockchain, which is designed to be faster, more easily scaled, and cheaper to transact on than competing blockchains. Fidelity’s move with Solana signals mainstream confidence in cryptocurrency for retail purposes and is a nod to using Solana for stablecoin transactions and its potential value for faster cross-border transactions and blockchain-based securities settlement.

SoFi reported net revenue of $950 million and member growth of 35% YoY, to 12.6 million, in its Q3 earnings. The bank continues to expand its range of consumer products with the launch of blockchain-based remittances, an AI-driven financial wellness tool. SoFi’s membership of 12.6 million pales in comparison to megabanks’ customer rolls—but the breadth of its consumer products does not. Traditional community and small regional banks are the most threatened, while SoFi’s infrastructure business puts it in direct competition with banks that provide licenses and infrastructure for consumer fintechs.

Consumers believe the use of AI makes it harder to detect scams, according to a recently published report from risk-management fintech Alloy. It also found that fraud prevention and security measures are top factors for 97% of respondents when they choose a bank. Customer trust is paramount to a financial institution’s survival, and anything that erodes that trust can prompt them to switch or avoid certain banks altogether. With AI changing the scam landscape dramatically in just a few years, banks must accordingly invest in modern technology—including their own AI tools—and customer education.