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Canada鈥檚 banking landscape is evolving, with digital account opening growth continuing to slow over the next four years. To capture what growth remains, banks must focus on delivering the most in-demand offerings.

Brokered deposits at US banks decreased for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q1 2025. This means that banks are reducing their dependence on this generally more expensive funding source in favor of lower-cost options. And targeted marketing efforts helped them achieve this. Banks employ a variety of strategies to attract and retain customers of their lower-cost deposit products such as seamless account opening, free checking accounts, early access to paychecks, and competitive rates.

The news: To effectively engage Gen Z, banks must offer more than just basic digital experiences. This generation demands instant gratification, expecting rapid account openings, quick loan decisions, and frictionless onboarding. Gen Z also prefers visual learning, gravitating toward video explanations and gamified education for financial literacy. Despite their digital fluency, they still value human connection for problem-solving, requiring quick access to live help. Our take: Banks should move beyond traditional "channels" or "products" and design a responsive, omnichannel ecosystem that delivers education, trust, and personalization in real time, fitting seamlessly into Gen Z鈥檚 lives.

The news: The banking sector is evolving towards embedded finance and enhanced data-sharing, allowing customers to access financial products and services from any provider, on any platform. This unbundling trend, driven by fintechs, could marginalize traditional banks. The article draws a parallel to the music industry's digital disruption, where unbundling (like iTunes) and streaming (like Spotify) fundamentally reshaped its value chain. This transformation, catalyzed by companies like Napster, created diverse new models. The opportunity: Similar to how streaming music providers anticipate continued growth, banking customers increasingly seek unbundled services, with fintechs outpacing traditional financial institutions in new checking account openings as consumers hold multiple accounts for specific needs.

US financial institutions (FIs) will face low digital account growth over the next few years. But some customer groups will have higher growth potential than others, and FIs must understand how to build relationships with them.

Issuers can tap these models to reach a new customer segment and boost their credit card account openings

Our third annual study reveals which account opening features US consumers value most, based on our exclusive survey.鈥�

To overcome account opening headwinds, credit card marketers can explore credit card subscriptions, net worth data collection, and wallet-first cardholder experiences.

Why this matters: We already know that fintechs are outpacing traditional financial institutions (FIs) in new account openings, but that alone wasn鈥檛 alarming鈥攂ecause users could have been searching for specific features offered by fintechs and not their banks, while still keeping much of their banking activity with FIs.

This is up slightly from our January findings, which showed most new account openings among Gen Zers in 2024 were with fintechs. But traditional FIs aren鈥檛 out of the game: They鈥檙e strategically evolving their offerings to appeal to this crucial demographic. Digital-first enhancements: Traditional banks are bolstering their digital capabilities.

Omnichannel account opening: 35% of banks support new account openings through unauthenticated apps, but only 18% show a customer service number in the app compared with 65% on mobile web. Per U.S. Bank鈥檚 website, users can open a new account from the mobile app in under 5 minutes.

In 2023, 92.3% of the 5.2 million accounts opened digitally will be with incumbent banks, as digital-only banks fall victim to economic uncertainty and intense fintech competition.

Growth in digital account openings for credit cards is slowing, thanks to tightening standards and changing generational behaviors. But issuers are utilizing new tools to keep it afloat.

US consumers will open 5.2 million new bank accounts digitally this year. Our exclusive consumer survey data reveals which emerging mobile features banks should invest in to win over customers.

Cardholders will also get a $200 resort credit upon account opening and on their card anniversary each year. They can also get a complimentary night stay (up to $250) annually if they spend $25,000 or more on the card. Will it work? While cardholders can quickly make up their annual fee from the card鈥檚 resort credits, this card will likely only appeal to the most loyal MGM travelers.

We covered a recent Forbes analysis showing how fintechs are outpacing banks in new checking account openings鈥攁nd we found that multi-banking is behind that trend. Gen Z favors cashback and discounts, driving adoption of credit cards (46% for rewards, 36% for convenience).

US cash-back credit card issuers will need to work harder than ever to attract customers in 2025 as credit card digital account openings are set to grow just 4.0%, per our forecast. As the post-pandemic boom in account growth ends, they will face headwinds, including increased credit card delinquencies and tightened lending standards.

Offering secured or subscription credit cards can help issuers attract these customers and bolster account openings

What intrigues them about digital competitors: Meanwhile, fintechs are outpacing banks in new checking account openings, per a separate Forbes and Cornerstone Advisors study. And though these may not be customers鈥� primary accounts, it still means they associate fintechs with what they want鈥攇ood digital experiences to fill gaps within their overall banking journeys.

On today鈥檚 podcast, we are talking about digital account-opening trends, who鈥檚 opening bank accounts digitally, and what they want or expect when going through that process. Here鈥檚 a look at what we鈥檙e talking about this week: 鈥� In our 鈥淗eadlines鈥� segment, we discuss how in-flight deposits and Gen Z will drive account openings in 2023 and to what extent new account openings are the result of high deposit rates and an incentive-laden environment. 鈥� In 鈥淪tory by Numbers,鈥� we examine how being able to set up direct deposit when consumers open checking accounts is extremely important and the importance of deposits being protected. 鈥� In 鈥淔or Argument鈥檚 Sake,鈥� we suppose there鈥檚 a new US banking regulation requiring all banking products to be applied for and opened online. We debate (nicely) how the industry dynamics would change if everything in banking were digitized and moved online. Tune in to the conversation with host Rob Rubin, managing principal of financial services consulting at EPAM Systems Alex Jimenez, and our analyst Tiffani Montez.