Truist’s agreement with Plaid fits into a new norm.

Financial stress is turning everyday money management into a trust test for banks. As consumers expect real help in tough moments, fragmented tools and reactive alerts are no longer enough—forcing banks to rethink financial wellness.

The commercial incentives are clear even as government pressure fades.

Trust in consumer banking varies widely in 2026. Primary banks still anchor core products. But confidence differs by generation, product, and channel, with honesty, transparency, and security shaping how consumers evaluate financial providers.

Truist has added a direct deposit switching tool to its consumer digital account opening flow using technology from Atomic. The feature lets customers move their payroll deposits from another financial institution (FI) to Truist during onboarding. Creating a direct-deposit relationship is a well-worn path to primary FI status. It positions FIs to retain customers and cross-sell higher-value, advice-driven products. FIs that transform direct-deposit switching from a paper-based process to a few clicks will find that customers are immediately stickier.

Banks are gradually improving speed, control, and transparency in mobile banking—but as expectations rise, incremental updates won’t cut it. Our ninth annual study reveals where real-time innovation can still set new leaders apart.

JPMorgan, Bank of America, and others are opening hundreds of new locations, leaning on physical presence to win deposits and outmaneuver fintech rivals.

Lloyds, NatWest, and Truist are redefining banking with generative AI. Lloyds moves beyond individual use cases to rethink processes entirely, aiming for a customer-facing AI agent by late summer 2025. NatWest shifted to reimagining entire customer experiences, empowering all 70,000 employees with AI tools to rapidly explore new possibilities. Truist focuses on "knowledge extraction," a low-risk, high-reward use case demonstrating immediate value. Continuous experimentation and adaptable strategies are crucial for AI implementation, requiring agile learning, boundary-pushing, and prioritizing employee buy-in for customer-focused solutions.

Truist is making significant strides in optimizing its digital onboarding process, prioritizing increased personalization and a smoother customer journey to attract new clients. This multi-pronged strategy includes enabling mobile ID verification to boost conversion rates among younger generations, seamlessly integrating new clients with services like direct deposit and Zelle to establish Truist as their primary bank, and allowing personalized mobile app dashboards. These digital improvements, supported by AI for feedback aggregation, aim to offset the impact of branch closures and meet the demand for digital convenience, particularly from Gen Z. Truist should amplify marketing efforts to highlight the ease and speed of their fully digital onboarding, emphasizing that no in-person ID verification is required.

The news: Paze notched a major partnership with Worldpay to expand its merchant network, per a press release. Our take: Groundwork has been set for Paze to take off. We predicted that Paze would make significant gains in 2025, and this partnership will help Paze establish its online presence and customer familiarity for strong back-to-school and holiday shopping spend.

The deal received conditional regulatory approval, shaking up the card space and larger financial service industry

BofA held the top ranking in an online banking scorecard, while Truist topped our mobile feature benchmark.

Our eighth annual study reveals which of the 10 largest US banks lead in mobile app innovation, based on an exclusive survey of which features mobile banking users value most.

Its full rollout has been a long time coming. Now, it needs to expand its merchant network before it can really take off

Our seventh annual study reveals which of the 15 biggest US banks lead in mobile app innovation—a significant factor in attracting mobile-forward Gen Z—based on an exclusive survey of which features 1,895 mobile banking users value most.

US banking digital ad spending growth has slowed to a trickle and pushed marketers to rethink their allocation strategies. But 2024 looks more promising.

Banks’ top priority in H2 2023 will be growing their customer bases. The result? Better messaging and targeting, stronger digital capabilities, and industry consolidation. At the same time, generative AI will start driving meaningful efficiencies.

The CFPB signaled it’s taking a more proactive stance in policing banks’ AI chatbots, including dishing out penalties.

Bank of America is giving consumers the capability to seamlessly switch between its AI-powered chatbot and a human agent.

This sixth annual study ranks mobile app capabilities across 20 US financial institutions on 42 emerging features, weighted by consumer demand.