Navigating the Consumer Banking Landscape: A Field Guide

Today’s consumer banking landscape includes some rough terrain. Crossing the bumps and dips of economic uncertainty, fierce competition, and evolving consumer expectations can be a bumpy ride, for even the most seasoned bankers.  

CONNECT 2025, Q2’s customer conference, was a helpful field guide for the financial institution leaders who joined industry experts and innovative fintechs to share new (and proven) approaches for today’s challenges—and the road ahead.

Here are the four prevailing themes that emerged, with examples of real-world strategies, successes, and tools that support them. 

Let Data be Your Guide 

The research is clear: 74% of consumers, across generations, want personalized banking. But when most banking happens digitally, how do you get to know people you may never meet? The answer is data. 

According to The Harris Poll, 66% of consumers trust financial institutions to use their data to personalize experiences. The challenge, though, is effectively using that data. 

Data-driven marketing tools in the Q2 Engage suite of consumer banking solutions help financial institutions build lifetime loyalty by delivering what people want, when they want it. First Farmers Bank & Trust and Cyprus Credit Union are two institutions using Q2 Engage solutions to transform data into rich, tailored experiences: 

• Using the Q2 Discover survey tool, First Farmers identified high demand for a rewards and cashback program, then confidently allocated resources to implement one with fintech partner Prizeout. Next, with Q2 EVE Extract, it quickly created a targeted campaign for customers who expressed interest in the new offering.   

• With Discover and Q2 SMART, a behavior-based marketing platform, Cyprus is developing a program to provide targeted experiences to members with mortgage loans in progress or who have expressed interest in one. This segmented audience will see timely, mortgage-related messages and education.  

Data-driven personalization like this is the fast track to loyalty in fiercely competitive markets. Cyprus Chief Experience Officer David Sant puts it this way, “You have to have a personalization mentality. No one gets tired of seeing what's relevant to them. That’s why data-based segmentation and targeting are key. What people get sick and tired of is getting things that aren’t relevant or offers for products they already have.” 

You Can’t Go It Alone 

Innovation is now mission-critical for thriving financial institutions, and that takes help. As consumer demands rapidly evolve, partnership is the way to quickly scale offerings that meet sky-high expectations. 

According to the 2025 Retail Banking Trends and Priorities report, while 48% of institutions depend on core providers for solutions, 38% favor fintech partnerships to accelerate innovation. With the 185+ fintechs in Q2 Innovation Studio’s partner ecosystem, banks and credit unions can now uniquely accelerate digital innovation with pre-integrated solutions, drastically reducing the time and cost required to bring differentiated offerings to market 

This kind of fintech access is a game-changing boost for financial institutions. For OceanAir Federal Credit Union, it's improving the lives of members and strengthening their communities. 

“Innovation Studio enables quick movement, access to integrated solutions, and delivery of more value to members and the community—at a fraction of what it would cost if we tried to do all of this on our own. It has allowed us to compete with much larger institutions,” explains OceanAir Chief Experience Officer Jesus Garcia. 

Fintech partnerships help improve services, fill competitive gaps, mitigate fraud, and drive significant revenue. Chartway Credit Union Vice President of Digital Banking Doug Almeida says Innovation Studio fintech partner Entersekt has helped cut fraud losses in half, and the combined power of Pulsate for mobile engagement, Entersekt authentication, and TruStage for CD account opening generated some $2 million in new CD deposits in 45 days. 

This level of partnership, with pre-integrated solutions, is how to reach goals faster. 

Engage Early and Often 

Lifetime relationships start on Day 1. 

From account opening to onboarding and throughout account holder journeys, building value takes strategic, systematic engagement. Without it, most new accounts don’t last beyond 90 days. That’s because legacy digital account opening and onboarding processes don’t engage, build relationships, or drive value quickly enough. 

The combined power of Q2 onboarding solutions and the Innovation Studio partner ecosystem deliver targeted education and engagement during the critical 90. Tools like Discover’s data-driven in-app messaging and Q2 Getting Started's curated tasks—from new-card setup to direct deposit switching—strategically grow relationships.  

This ongoing engagement not only retains new accounts but increases lifetime value—by a lot. According to Bain & Company, a 5% increase in account holder retention can boost revenue 25 to 95%. 

Increasing revenue from existing accounts is also a smart efficiency play that leapfrogs to greater profitability. For financial institutions, acquiring a new account costs significantly more than retaining an existing one—to the tune of five to 25 times more, according to most industry estimates. 

The most effective engagement is a one-two punch of relevance and the right timing.  SMART empowers financial institutions to segment audiences and send tailored, perfectly timed messages. Innovation Studio partners help boost effectiveness by going beyond banner ads and email to meet people where they are—through in-app communications.  

Features like velocity filters and geofencing create hyper-targeted micro-engagements that elevate and differentiate connections and relationships. Institutions using Larky push notifications, for example, have reported seven to 10 times higher engagement than legacy communication methods. 

“We’re seeing financial institutions start by using SMART to extract target audiences for email campaigns, then they begin to shift their marketing spends from legacy channels to more modern ones like push notification because they experience significantly higher engagement,” says Q2 Senior Business Development Manager Jake Speltz. 

Younger Generations Are Critical to Long-Term Growth  

Nearly $124 trillion in assets is set to change hands through 2048, according to estimates by consulting firm Ceruli Associates. The recipients, primarily Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980), millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z (born after 1997) are expected to inherit about $106 trillion of that amount, mainly from baby boomers. 

It’s a phenomenon that’s made younger account holders a strategic growth priority for many financial institutions.  

The first step in capturing (and keeping) younger generations is understanding them. Gen Z and millennials, representing 13- to 44-year-olds, are digitally savvy and expect fast, mobile-first, value-driven experiences. They are also the most financially stressed generations, with over half of Gen Zs entering adulthood without financial literacy. 

These younger generations prioritize ease of use, are influenced by peers, and they’re looking to financial institutions for guidance, viewing them as trusted advisors. Innovation Studio and its partner ecosystem is how many financial institutions are delivering on this expectation and capturing growth opportunities. 

Lake City Bank, for example, uses Innovation Studio partner Eko for low-minimum digital investing and Spiral for value-aligned charitable giving to offer products that meet the specific needs of younger account holders. 

Chartway is reimagining how it delivers experiences for Gen Z with the goal of a “three-click-or-less experience” for these digital-native users. It's leveraging Innovation Studio partners to solve specific problems by integrating applications for speedy and seamless workflows, such as enabling authenticated digital account opening in under five minutes. 

Cvprus is combining fintech partnerships and Q2 data-driven tools like Composable Dashboard, SMART, and Discover to tailor digital banking experiences for teen members. When teens log on, they’ll see only the tools relevant to them—the Zogo app for financial literacy, college scholarship information, and school-based resources, for example. Cyprus is also targeting parents with experiences that reinforce those messages. 

These innovative approaches are how to win younger generations of account holders for life.

Q2 Can Help 

Need more guidance navigating the consumer banking landscape? Q2 has the insights and solutions to level the terrain for your institution. Contact one of our experts to get started.