UK digital bank Starling is exploring an acquisition of another UK lender, per the Financial Times—in addition to a US bank. The move could help it expand quickly into corporate lending. Starling is not the only foreign neobank with US plans. Revolut, which competes with Starling globally, has held talks with investment bankers about buying a bank to secure a US license. Brazil’s Nubank applied for a US bank charter in October. But barriers to entry are rising as US challenger banks mature. Given the challenges ahead, quickly growing its loan book will be crucial to Starling’s profit plans.
Consumers are moderately satisfied with how their primary financial institution (FI) supports them throughout life events, according to a recent Jack Henry study. But satisfaction varies greatly by the type of event and its impact on the consumer. FI sales strategies can’t be built around products. Instead, they should facilitate financial journeys based on life events, as we explore in our June 2025 report, Future-Proofing Banking Through Customer-Centric Journeys.
Falling mortgage rates have reignited refinancing activity, particularly among borrowers with recently originated loans. Refinance volume rose 88% YoY, per Mortgage Bankers Association data from earlier this month. Traditional lenders should take a similar tack with enhancing the digital mortgage experience and focus on retaining existing mortgage customers as falling rates tempt them to refinance with competitors. The combination of personalized advice and a better digital experience could keep customers within a bank’s ecosystem.
Consumer loan volume and credit risk are getting harder to gauge as lending moves away from banks and into alternative consumer lending. One estimate says that private funding for consumer lending fintechs could support almost $140 billion in global lending over several years. FIs’ general disinterest in riskier borrowers means that they migrate to fintechs, which may retain the risk or shift it to banks and investors in ways that reveal little about borrowers on the hook for repayment. If the trend continues, widespread defaults could hit the financial system, and few will know exactly what to expect.
North Carolina-based Self-Help Credit Union is suing Fiserv for alleged lax security practices related to how Fiserv accessed its secure data. Self-Help seeks compensation for fees that it says it paid to enhance security. Financial institutions (FIs) are ultimately responsible to customers and regulators for their vendors’ actions, and it’s a huge compliance problem when one doesn’t follow through. Small FIs are known to struggle with technology talent and budgets, so they depend heavily on partners to meet their obligations. That makes FI oversight of their vendors even more essential.
PNC unveiled direct Bitcoin trading for private bank clients—high net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high net-worth (UHNW) individuals. PNC clients will be able to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin through PNC using Coinbase’s crypto as a service product. Amid the Great Wealth Transfer, banks and brokerage firms can’t ignore crypto, and they shouldn’t satisfy themselves with retail offerings. With integrated crypto trading and custody, PNC fixes a crucial competitive gap with crypto firms and forward-thinking brokerages, augmenting wealth services to attract consumers who expect to invest in crypto. Peers will follow.
Many Gen Xers have waited until their later working years to prepare for retirement, according to a Harris Poll study, and they’re racing to catch up. After they realized retirement was nearing, 40% of Gen Xers said they cut back on discretionary spending. The story about the Great Wealth Transfer often leaves out Gen Xers. Banks should be preparing their advice offerings for the upcoming wave of Gen X retirements among and the financial strain many face as that transition nears, so these customers aren’t left behind.
BNY will integrate Google Gemini Enterprise into Eliza, its in-house AI platform. Gemini will give Eliza deep research tools and let BNY’s employees build AI agents that draw from and act on the bank’s vast libraries of financial data. The haves and have nots of banking’s AI era are coming into relief. The top strata are institutions that have invested heavily in data infrastructure that supports AI’s needs. The next strata are developing dedicated AI strategy but aren’t building as much in-house. Banks in the final strata haven’t found ways to use AI at scale but need to now.
In their earnings last week, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and TD Bank—Canada’s two largest financial institutions—flagged investments in AI R&D. This builds on recent data about banks’ deployment of agentic AI as well as detailed insights from JPMorgan’s and Bank of America’s public statements about their massive spending on AI and supporting infrastructure. Dollars spent on technology matter—so do how the money is spent and the number and severity of conflicting priorities. Business troubles are metastasizing more quickly because of the rapid pace of change technological innovation is imposing on a historically staid industry.
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the public launch of Kraken VIP, a service akin to a private crypto bank for investors with a $10 million average balance or $80 million in annual trading volume. Crypto is tapping the ultra-luxury market with benefits and exclusivity that have been the domain of private banks and high-end credit cards. This new frontier for crypto should incite traditional financial providers to evolve their UHNW offerings to meet rising experiential expectations.
The share of rental applicants who are more than 90 days delinquent on student loans increased from 15% in January 2025 to 32% in May, according to a just-released TransUnion report. Credit score data reflects these delinquencies, with lower-scoring consumers faring the worst. Consumers’ struggles with student loan repayments highlight a problem for financial institutions (FIs) on the hook for private-loan defaults. And as consumers delay expensive financial decisions like buying a house in favor of reducing student loan debt, demand for credit like mortgages and auto loans will suffer.
Canada’s big banks exceeded expectations for the 2025 fiscal year as capital markets and wealth management carried results. But economic uncertainty loomed over results. Adverse trade policy and a cooling labor market were hot topics, and there are risks of consumer credit stress. Threats to Canada’s economic wellbeing abound, which will trickle down to banks’ businesses. In the meantime, restructuring will likely distract management teams, slowing response to changing business conditions.
Most people who get their health coverage through the ACA marketplace anticipate being unable to afford rising premiums if enhanced tax credits lapse, with many expecting they’ll have to forgo insurance, per a just-released KFF survey. Unaffordable insurance—or no coverage at all—will force people into difficult choices, such as delaying care and treatment or cutting other essentials to pay for healthcare. With coverage gaps possible as soon as next month, insurers will need to help members navigate changing eligibility and costs to avoid losing them.
PNC’s redesigned app, launching in H1 2026, will include “incremental functionality.” The bank hinted at digital direct deposit switching and instant debit card issuance. The new app is a culmination of several years’ worth of work replatforming digital banking. PNC’s aggressive strategy for branch banking includes deploying $2 billion on more than 300 new or renovated branches through 2030 and hiring 2,000 people to support them. When executed well, branch investments should pay off with increased brand awareness and more sales across channels.
Bank of America (BofA) is recommending that clients allocate up to 4% of their portfolios to crypto, a more crypto-forward stance than previously and one that clicks with demographic trends. What seems like a minor change to investment policies further legitimizes crypto as a mainstream asset and will have a long-term positive impact for BofA. Other banks should be prepared to do the same: Crypto as an investment is no longer niche, and institutions that don’t adapt will be left behind.
Canada’s Laurentian Bank agreed to break apart and sell itself after years of lackluster performance. National Bank of Canada will buy Laurentian’s consumer and small business banking portfolios at book value. Laurentian struggled to differentiate itself favorably. And its lack of scale means it hasn’t had the resources to modernize its infrastructure and operations or grow beyond its home market of Quebec. With the breakup of banks, the list of large financial institutions in Canada is shrinking, and the largest are only getting bigger.
From Q1 to Q2 2025, search share of voice (SOV) declined steeply for some banking sites. For example, Wells Fargo fell from 3.83% to 1.21% and NerdWallet from 3.66% to 1.68%. At the same time, StudentAid.gov entered the top five and ConsumerFinance.gov entered the top 10. Since FIs can’t control events that drive people’s need for information, they should be prepared to offer education and advice tailored to their customers’ needs and anticipate other resources to which they should direct customers. If an FI is only a place to buy and administer financial products and services, it can’t be positioned as a trusted advisor.
In 2025, 82% of US consumers did not increase their emergency savings, including 33% whose emergency savings decreased and 18% who had none to begin with. Financial institutions (FIs) are in a strong position to help consumers save. When they do so successfully, they can enhance customer loyalty and help them stay on firmer financial ground, making them high-quality customers for non-depository banking products and services.
Green Dot’s fintech business and licensed bank are being separated and acquired—the former by a private equity firm and the latter by an $839 million commercial bank. The total value of the deal is estimated to be between $825 million and $1.1 billion. B2B services, including banking as a service, has been Green Dot’s growth engine. Carving off the noncore, lower-margin, declining part of the business will allow the company to focus on where it has the greatest growth opportunities. A bank can best leverage its expertise and infrastructure to operate the businesses that Green Dot has struggled with.
SitusAMC—a vendor to banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley—had a data breach whose scope and severity it’s still investigating. The compromised data was related to residential mortgages and may include Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information. Even the best-prepared financial services companies need to be ready to respond to data breaches. Vague assurances before or after a breach suggest bankers aren’t paying attention to necessary details. They must be explicit and transparent about safeguards and breach remediation.