Dive Brief:

• Consumers have become attached to mobile banking. Nearly 4 in 5 use banking apps weekly and more than 3 in 5 say they “can’t live without them,” according to a Chase Bank survey of 2,000 consumers released earlier this month.
• While paying bills and depositing checks are two of the most used features, more consumers are beginning to use tools to manage their finances.
• One-third of consumers use digital budgeting tools, and more than half of consumers use credit score monitoring — up from 1 in 10 in 2020. 

Dive Insight:

The pandemic jumpstarted mobile banking. Five years later, digital banking has become a core aspect of consumers’ banking expectations — and consumers now want more from their banking apps. 

Four in five consumers under the age of 45 believe they should be able to accomplish any task through a mobile app, Peter Wannemacher, principal analyst at Forrester, told CX Dive in November. 

The top capabilities banks can offer customers meet simple banking needs: the ability to easily view balances, find a transaction and move money, according to Forrester research. But banks have room for improvement when it comes to the user experience of savings tools, alerts and transaction disputes, especially as consumers use these features more often.

Younger consumers, particularly millennials, are driving this shift. That demographic uses online banking features more than any other generation, according to Chase. They also show more interest in features like AI assistants.

One benefit of adopting financial tools is spending less time managing finances: Nearly half of consumers said they would use features that automate their savings. One-third expect to spend less time in the next 10 years.

Personal financial management tools — such as spend calculators, automatic savings and credit score tools — improve bank satisfaction, according to Jennifer White, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power.

“Just being aware that those are available at [their] primary bank has a significant impact on increasing satisfaction with the overall bank — even if they don't use it,” White told CX Dive earlier this month.