Insights: Who’s winning the US digital banking race?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Benjamin Ensor (0:44)

Welcome to Fintech Insider Insights. I'm Benjamin Ensor, Director of Research and Strategy at 11FS. Now, the United States banking market offers customers more choice than ever. Large established banks compete not only with each other, but with credit unions, small community banks, digital first banks, fintechs, credit card providers, and digital wallets, all of which play an increasing role in Americans' everyday financial lives. But more choice doesn't necessarily mean that customers' needs are being better served.

So for its latest US benchmarking research, 11FS Pulse has looked beyond individual mobile banking features to assess how effectively different types of banking provider and different individual firms are helping customers accomplish the financial jobs to be done that matter to them. So in this episode, we're going to explore the broader trends emerging from that research. Where American banking services are delivering strong digital experiences, where customers remain underserved, and what different types of provider can learn from each other.

And as customers increasingly spread their financial lives across multiple providers, we're going to ask, what does it actually mean to be a great banking provider today? So to unpack these topics, I'm delighted to be joined by two of my colleagues. First of all, we have a welcome back to the show to Joe Colchester, Head of Product at 11FS Pulse. Joe, welcome back to the show. Please can you remind listeners about you and your role at Pulse?

Joe Colchester (2:19)

Thank you so much for having me back.

Yes, I'm Joe Colchester, Head of Product here at 11FS Pulse, and I lead on the content team, but also execute on the roadmap that we have. Today, we're talking about the US feature benchmarking tool that we will have launched by the time of publishing this episode. It's a delight to be here.

Benjamin Ensor (2:42)

Welcome. I'm also delighted to welcome my colleague, Oliwia Wasik, who is Product Manager and Benchmark Lead at 11FS Pulse.

Welcome, Oliwia. Could you also tell our listeners a little bit about you and a little bit about your role at Pulse? Yeah.

Oliwia Wasik (2:58)

Morning. Happy to be here.

In my role as Product Lead, I'm in charge of basically running the research behind the benchmarking and making sure that it is accurate and that we have everything we need.

Benjamin Ensor (3:12)

Fantastic. Well, welcome to both of you. Okay. Well, let's dive in. So when we talk about the best digital banking experiences, people sometimes focus on individual features, the fastest onboarding process, the widest range of payments, the most intelligent savings features, or the newest AI-powered chatbot. But a mere checklist of individual features doesn't necessarily tell us how well a banking provider is serving its customers overall.

So for the latest benchmarking research focusing on the United States, 11FS Pulse has taken a jobs-to-be-done approach, looking at how effectively different providers help customers accomplish specific financial needs or jobs to be done. And importantly, that means looking beyond just the large established branch-based banks like Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo, but also covering other providers. And so the research covers 24 different providers from the US, including banks, fintechs, credit unions, credit card providers, and digital wallets.

Oliwia, I'd love to start with you and start by thinking about how a customer's everyday banking needs changing. I mean, are people's needs the same as they were, or have they sort of evolved over time? And why have you taken these jobs to be done, Lenz, to think about what a great experience looks like?

Oliwia Wasik (4:37)

Yeah, of course. So I think expectations have shifted, primarily because our financial lives are so much more fragmented today. So previously, where you would have your primary financial provider, and this is usually where your salary would land, and this is where the majority of your financial life would kind of revolve around. Today, people are using a variety of products, a variety of providers to manage their financial lives. And also along with that, because the majority of our lives are sort of conducted on our mobile phones, we are also rising these expectations to our banks, so we don't need to be going to a branch so much or even using online banking.