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For years, financial institutions focused on a single digital goal: getting customers to sign up for online and mobile banking. Today, that mission is largely accomplished. However, a new and much tougher challenge has emerged. Having an active digital user base is no longer enough to guarantee growth, customer loyalty, or cross-sell success.
According to the 2026 Digital Banking Performance Metrics report, conducted by Cornerstone Advisors and sponsored by Alkami, digital banking has entered a mature phase. While mobile activation and digital lending are hitting historic milestones, financial institutions are still struggling with high friction points, particularly in digital account onboarding and person-to-person (P2P) payments.
The clear takeaway for bank and credit union executives is that success is no longer defined by how many features you offer, but by how seamlessly those features execute.
The Engagement Gap: Logins vs. True Relationship Building
The push to transition customers to digital channels has been highly successful. Active digital banking users reached 87% of checking accounts in 2025. Mobile banking, in particular, saw a massive surge, with active users climbing to 82% from 73% the previous year.
However, simple registration metrics mask a significant gap between average performers and market leaders:
- Log-In Frequency Matters: The average active digital banking user logs in about 17 times per month. Meanwhile, top-performing institutions see customers interacting with their app closer to six times a week.
- The Cross-Sell Payoff: High engagement translates directly to revenue. Highly active digital users adopted an average of 1.56 new products in 2025, up from 1.22 in 2024.
- The Payment Shift: Mobile wallet adoption doubled to 38% in 2025, with transaction frequency rising to nine times per month. Conversely, bank-provided P2P payment adoption plummeted from 24% to 15% as consumers migrated to third-party platforms like Venmo and Cash App.
For marketing and product leaders, this shifting landscape means campaigns must move away from simple “enrollment” pushes and focus heavily on driving repeat daily or weekly interactions.
The Onboarding Crisis: Why Growth Fails at the Starting Line
While consumer willingness to open accounts online is growing—with digital checking openings reaching 27% of all new accounts—the process remains plagued by friction.
The report highlights a frustrating reality: financial institutions lost an average of 3.36 digital applications for every single account successfully opened. This high abandonment rate represents a massive waste of marketing spend and customer acquisition budget.
To solve this, banks must treat digital onboarding as an organization-wide issue rather than just a marketing challenge. Bridging this gap requires deep cooperation across risk, compliance, IT, and UX design teams to eliminate unnecessary fields and identity verification hurdles.
In contrast, digital lending has proven that consumers will complete complex processes if they are intuitive. In 2025, digital retail loan applications crossed the majority threshold for the first time, reaching 51%.
Feature Utilization: Prioritizing Impact Over Parity
Many banks fall into the trap of building digital roadmaps solely to match competitor feature lists. However, the data shows that customers use digital tools very selectively:
- Credit Monitoring Drives Engagement: Despite being less widely offered than card management tools, credit score monitoring saw exceptionally high consumer utilization and repeat traffic.
- PFM Tools Fall Short: Personal financial management (PFM) tools continue to see declining utilization, even as more institutions roll them out.
Financial institutions will likely see a better return on investment by optimizing and promoting the core features customers already love, rather than continually adding low-utility tools to their platforms.
Business Banking: The Next Digital Frontier
While retail digital experiences have matured, business banking remains a massive opportunity for differentiation. Although 78% of enrolled business customers are active on digital platforms, the capabilities offered to them remain basic.
Only 17% of surveyed institutions offer online account opening for businesses, and features like cashflow forecasting and integrated treasury management are still rare. Gaining better visibility into how business clients use existing platforms will be key to designing the next generation of commercial digital banking.
Ultimately, the digital divide is no longer between those who have an app and those who do not. The institutions winning the market are those utilizing data to remove friction, boost daily log-ins, and turn simple digital access into deep financial relationships.
Source: thefinancialbrand.com