Generational Trends in Digital Banking Study

We currently stand in the middle of what has been called the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. As millennials are anticipated to be the nation’s future wealth holders, it is imperative for financial institutions to understand how this generation stands apart from baby boomers, Generation Xers (Gen X), and Generation Zs (Gen Z) when creating compelling value propositions. The times are even more interesting, now fifteen years post the Great Recession, when this generation largely came of age and now enters a rising inflationary environment for the first time in their adult lives.

In this year’s Generational Trends in Digital Banking Study, Alkami wanted to uncover precisely what is happening by generation, with an emphasis on millennials, so that financial institutions can respond with the needed insights and expertise to drive more meaningful engagement, loyalty, and relationships with the customers and members they serve. For millennials, the price of entry is an exemplary digital banking experience, where the digital banking channel is equal parts sales and service. The path to differentiation will compel banks and credit unions to leverage data to deliver increasingly personalized offers, thereby evolving into the data-informed digital bankers of the future.

The national study included a rigorous methodology with 1,500 participants weighted to the 2020 US Census for age, gender, region, and ethnicity.

In addition, to provide even deeper insights, all participants currently have a bank account and are presently active in digital banking (check accounts, transfer funds, pay bills online, etc.).

This provides the exact perspective bank and credit union leaders must know to inform current and future strategies.

To ensure that the changing state of work across generations was represented, the study also included an oversample of 250 participants who are currently employed full-time or part-time and 250 participants who are currently employed or recently working in the gig economy.

The result is an extremely low margin of error (+/2.53), which is ideal for executive insights and trend discovery.

The completeness and accuracy of the study sample fueled numerous exciting discoveries that we are thrilled to share in this report.

On behalf of Alkami, we are inspired and honored to provide these mission-critical research insights to you and your financial institution so you can drive greater engagement, loyalty and growth at this transformative generational time.