A collection of exclusive studies, white papers, eBooks and research reports produced in collaboration with The Financial Brand’s partners.
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Challenger Brand Marketing® – The Financial Brand Edition
Credit unions and community banks stand out as pillars of member-centric banking within the financial services industry.
This report is an essential guide for credit unions and community banks navigating competitive markets, where large, dominant institutions hold significant influence—often called “Gorilla” competitors—those who:
- out-spend
- out-sell
- out-merchandise
- out-staff
- out-resource all others in the category
Credit unions and community banks must adopt a new-tactical marketing mindset and strategy to succeed; this is the Challenger Brand approach.
Digital Dynamics: Corporate Banking 2025
Corporate and business clients are demanding more from their banks.
Just like consumers, businesses of all shapes and sizes need more than just products and services. They are looking for support across all aspects of their finances, creating a chance for agile financial institutions to deliver holistic omnichannel digital financial services.
Get ready to seize the opportunity by reading our report on the future of corporate banking.
Combat Rising CPAs: A Roadmap for Financial Marketers
Unlock strategies to combat rising CPAs only found within our 2024 report.
Learn how to optimize your marketing investments and stay ahead of competitors by reassessing your channel efficiency, reallocating budgets to high-performing areas, and leveraging marketing modeling. Discover actionable tactics that will help you lower acquisition costs, boost brand visibility, and build long-term customer trust.
Don’t let rising CPAs hold you back — take control of your marketing spend and drive sustainable growth today!
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Maximize ROMI by optimizing your channels
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Shift budgets to supercharge high-performing tactics
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Power growth with precise audience modeling
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Drive brand dominance through consistent marketing and optimization
Banking and Modernization
Take an in-depth look at the power of progressive modernization as senior financial experts from Backbase, McKinsey and Microsoft discuss the key components of progressive modernization — and how it can help your financial institution meet ever-changing customer expectations.
Explore how optimizing your services, journey by journey, can drive superior results and create a long-lasting modernization legacy, including:
- How banking leaders are transforming legacy systems with cutting-edge tech and strategic partnerships.
- The secrets to moving from closed systems to open ecosystems and integrating AI and advanced analytics.
- How customer-centric goals and optimization at scale can revolutionize banking experiences.
- Insights from top industry experts on achieving seamless modernization and staying ahead of fintech competition.
The High Interest Rate Environment and its Impact on Consumers and Financial Institutions
The rising interest rate environment, which hasn’t been seen in decades, is creating new pressure on consumers and financial institutions alike. The 2024 Alkami Telemetry Data Report provides multiyear trends of key deposit, loan and payment products, based on an aggregated panel of more than 2.5 million account holders, to provide financial institutions with industry benchmarks against which to compare their own performance.
This report supplemented by an Alkami commissioned study, conducted through The Center for Generational Kinetics, assesses how the current macroeconomic environment has impacted attitudes and behaviors across the generations.
Mitigating Fraud: Selecting the Right Partners to Stay Ahead
The digitization of financial services presents both opportunities and challenges for credit unions. As credit unions embrace digital transformation strategies, they can modernize their operations and offerings to better compete and serve members.
However, this shift has also introduced new entry points for fraudsters to exploit. Volume of suspected digital fraud from 2019 to 2023 grew by 105%. Armed with knowledge and the right partners, credit unions can implement fraud solutions to detect and prevent potential attacks.
2024 Spring Consumer Banking Report
Since EPAM started their annual Consumer Banking Report back in 2020, there have been a plethora of technological advancements and geopolitical events that have repeatedly upended the industry. This year’s survey is no different, having been conducted at the end of 2023 in a year marked by highly publicized bank failures, rising interest rates and a variety of difficult global economic challenges. Yet, throughout these major global upheavals, one thing has remained constant: People are happy with their banks.
In the fourth iteration of our report, EPAM surveyed 9,000 retail banking consumers evenly distributed across nine countries. Across all of these countries, these results were consistent regardless of our respondents’ ages, genders and incomes. But, why?
Enhancing the Small Business Payments Experience
This white paper, commissioned by Apiture but independently authored by Datos Insights, will help banks and credit unions better understand what they need to do to enhance the payment experience for their small-business customers/members and win a larger share of their business.
It will focus primarily on small-business payment knowledge and preferences, the importance of speed of payment, and the type of data financial institutions can provide. It will also explore small-business interest in mobile payments and the importance of a multichannel offering.
In this report, you’ll learn more about:
- Enhancing the payments experience for small business customers
- Accelerating fintech solutions to upgrade your SMB offerings
- Types of unique tools your financial institution can add to your tech stack to efficiently manage payments
Transforming Industries with Industry Cloud
In their recent survey on current and forthcoming industry cloud developments, and previous research on industry clouds, IDC uncovered valuable insights for organizations looking to get better ROI on their cloud technology investments.
In this report, you’ll learn more about:
- The motivations of industry cloud adopters
- The industries with highest propensity for adoption
- The benefits and challenges users experience with industry clouds today
- The role these clouds play in industry ecosystems
- And more.
The Definitive Guide to Statement Redesign for Banks: How Enhanced Statements Can Improve Your Customer Experience
Well-designed statements have the power to close the experience gap, and this report explores the unique touchpoint bank statements offer and demonstrates how a statement redesign can greatly reduce costly customer service calls, improve financial performance, and significantly increase customer engagement.
In this report, you’ll find:
- Common reasons why current bank statements miss the mark.
- The key design concepts and principles for engaging, modern statements that clients will want to read.
- How 1:1 on-statement messaging results in sky-high conversion rates.
The ROI of Rebranding: Best Practices to Measure Business Value for Financial Brands
Learn how institutions drive and deliver on the ROI of rebranding in this actionable guide that features new research on financial branding, including in-depth interviews, an analysis of recently rebranded banks and credit unions, and a survey of clients that have recently refreshed or rebranded. Explore the drivers and challenges that financial institutions are solving for with rebrands and see the strategies for success and lessons learned during the process.
In this report, you’ll:
- Discover why brands matter, and when it might be time to rebrand your financial institution
- Explore the advantages of rebranding, including benefits to the bottom line and increased brand influence
- Learn strategies for success from recently rebranded institutions and how to make the case for change
- Delve into case studies that explore three rebranded FIs, their data-driven decisions, and measures of success
Be More With Copilot at Your Side
Copilot frees up employees to work in uniquely human ways – with empathy, ingenuity and critical thinking – to make you more efficient, innovative and productive. Imagine what you could do with Copilot in your bank.
Imagine what you will do with Microsoft Copilot:
- Employee experience: Help employees develop impactful content, manage meetings and tasks effectively and perform complex tasks with simple commands.Focus on what matters to your customers
- Customer experience: Enable customers to manage money effectively, protect data and transactions from fraud and make banking apps easy to use.
- Security: Respond to threats in real-time, reduce the risk of data breaches, meet regulatory requirements and identify vulnerabilities.
Here Today, Here Tomorrow
Don’t fall for phantom growth. Banks and credit unions are pleased when their deposits grow from their latest CD special. But disappointment follows when they realize that the costs to gather those deposits eat up most of the benefits.
In this report, Kasasa reveals the hidden cost of hot money, and how financial institutions can capture deposits without falling for costly phantom growth.
Ready to Roll with Instant Issuance?
You’ll need to make several critical decisions on how to build out your program. These decisions range from the number and types of card printers to the type and amount of card stock to keep in inventory.
However, the most important decision you will make before implementation is the type of software hosting model on which to build your instant issuance card program.
In this report, we share six reasons why the SaaS model offers benefits over the SFP model to support your institution’s instant issuance needs.
Banking Reimagined: Unlocking Digital-First Banking Experiences
Consumers will adopt technology at warp speed if it makes their lives easier and is simple to use.
This seamless experience and personalization between devices are what consumers expect from every company they do business with. Including yours.
This report from NCR Voyix will be your guide through the continuous journey of becoming digital first.
The Digital Arms Race
Community banks and credit unions play a critical role in the geographies they serve.
But customers and members — the same ones you once considered a captive audience — are on the move. Today, you face fierce
competition from non-traditional organizations, including digital-first banks, fintechs, mobile payment platforms, and other challengers that
are targeting your customers and members.
This report from EXL shares how community banks and credit unions can thrive with a data-led approach (backed with some real-life examples).
Navigating Digital Lending in the Face of Fraud
As a financial institution (FI), you’re increasingly exposed to highly organized and coordinated attacks, especially when it comes to identity theft, payment fraud, and ransomware.
If left unrestrained, these threats can erode trust, undermine financial stability, and inflict substantial losses on both your FI and your consumers.
Explore the multifaceted outlook on fraud and how to best manage that risk within financial services with cutting-edge strategies, emerging technologies, and best practices to help safeguard your financial assets and preserve the trust and loyalty of your consumers.
The Credit Economy: How Younger Consumers Make Credit Decisions
Households are borrowing more money, meaning it is critical to understand the mechanics of how consumers make credit decisions.
As household debt increases, it’s essential to grasp the dynamics behind consumer credit decision-making processes. Diverse financial pressures across generations result in distinct preferences for credit options.
This analysis, a joint effort by PYMNTS and i2c, delves into the credit usage patterns and mindsets of younger consumers specifically.
Unchartered Territory: Digital Banking Trends and Predictions 2024
There are major opportunities ahead for innovators that make the right decisions today. Our guide to the trends and technologies that will shape the digital banking landscape in 2024 will help you plan for the disruption ahead and understand the technology investments that will drive future growth.
Find, actionable advice and guidance to help banks thrive during a year of rising competition, technological disruption and challenging economic headwinds.
Disrupting Vendor Selection: Shaking Up Old Ways of Picking a Digital Banking Partner
This report from Tyfone discusses what financial institutions need to know and do to choose the right digital banking partner.
This report includes:
- Why customers are looking for better digital CX
- What to look for in a digital banking partner
- The right questions to ask when you think you’ve found them
Data + AI Foundations in the Cloud for Financial Services
This report from Snowflake shows how industry leaders are prioritizing AI, data science and collaboration workloads in the cloud and where financial services organizations are prioritizing future investments.
This report includes:
- How industry leaders are prioritizing AI, data science and collaboration workloads in the cloud
- The role cost optimization and economic value play in these organizations’ cloud migration
- The top reasons industry leaders have adopted or will adopt a multi-cloud strategy
- Where financial services organizations are prioritizing future investments
A New Paradigm in Loan Underwriting: Cash-Flow & Residual Income Analysis
As alternatives to traditional credit scoring become better understood and prove reliable in predicting default risk, banks and lenders will have both a responsibility and a strong financial rationale to adopt them.
By doing so, they will open the door to homeownership to many creditworthy customers who have been disenfranchised by outdated credit score-based underwriting.
AI: The New Marketing Playbook
This report from Yext showcases how banks and credit unions of all sizes in the 21st century can use AI to their advantage in their marketing strategy.
Report Highlights Include:
- How to answer more user questions by structuring your information in a way AI can understand
- How to take advantage of content generation
- Scale your financial organization with the use of conversational AI
Cracking the Code of Gen Z
This 23-page report from Nymbus details how this young generation represents a significant opportunity for financial institutions.
This report includes:
- Gen Z’s expectations for a banking experience
- Building a Gen Z Brand
- How to identify the right offerings for Gen Z
Minding the Revenue Gaps
In this timely new report from Paymentus, get an in-depth look at how the current payment ecosystem stops you from earning revenue and how centralizing bill pay, loan payments and money movement in a payments hub can help you win it back!
Report Highlights Include:
- Discover 10 ways your payment environment is costing you money
- Meet four fee opportunities you’re missing out on including why >20% of revenues will be derived from non-banking sources
- See how you can win back “quiet quitter” customers such as the 43% who have a credit card at an institution other than their primary FI
How to Be a Valuable Partner to Consumers in Difficult Economic Times
This 22-page report from Franklin Madison explains where banks and credit unions can help consumers stand out from the crowd and engender loyalty: by helping them with their financial health and wellness.
This timely research includes:
- How to create consumer loyalty by partnering on concerns
- How a financial wellness approach can retain and attract consumers
- How to meet consumer needs amid uncertainty
Credit Card Strategy in a Rising Rate Environment
This 14-page research report from Elan Credit Card details how financial institutions now need a new card strategy that considers the balance of risk and profitability, technology, card assortment, and financial education.
This timely research includes:
- Rethinking the credit card product strategy
- Creating a better product with less risk and more income
- How economic pressures could pinch profitability
Make Bill Pay a Consumer Magnet Again
This 16-page research report from Paymentus analyzes the current bill pay experience for most financial institutions, and how improving this experience can transform bill pay into a personal finance tool for your customers.
In this report you will discover how to use bill pay to:
- Transform bill pay into a personal finance tool
- Create loyal customers
- Expand revenue-driving opportunities
Stellar Strategic Planning Advice From 10 Changemakers in Banking and Technology
To learn more about how banks can prepare for 2023, Nymbus spoke with ten industry leaders about how they approach strategic planning and what banking executives should plan for in the coming year. This 27-page report details their thoughts and guidance on how financial institutions should approach their strategic plans for 2023.
In this report you will discover:
- How to create a companywide culture of innovation
- Tips to improve customer retention
- How to think like a “brand,” not a bank
Loan Payments: A Hidden Opportunity
This insightful and timely report from Paymentus details where banks and credit unions fall short of consumer expectations, and more importantly: strategies to combat this shortfall.
In this report you will discover:
- An in-depth look at today’s modern borrower
- The must-haves for a satisfying loan repayment experience
- Five strategies to maximize your loan payment modernization
From Prospect to Evangelist: Retail Banking Text and Webchat Strategies
This 30-page report from Podium takes a look at the modern banking customer and how banks and credit unions must up their customer experience game to attract, convert and retain them.
In this report you will discover:
- A snapshot of the modern banking consumer
- Why good customer service doesn’t guarantee a good customer experience
- Text and webchat engagement strategies that convert customers
Deepen Relationships with Small Business Customers
This report from Bottomline features insights from Aite-Novarica Group and details how banks and credit unions can provide SMB customers with a best-in-class digital banking experience and the opportunity it brings.
In this report you will discover:
- How even big banks with massive tech budgets are perceived as lagging behind in meeting the needs of small businesses
- Gen Z and Millennial business owners want a different business banking experience than previous generations.
- What financial institutions can provide that their small business clients are asking for
Getting the Most Out of Marketing Automation
This 17-page research report from Act-On outlines how FIs can overcome marketing automation challenges with technology, process, and people.
In this report you will discover:
- 3 secrets to getting the most out of your marketing automation
- How to use data for segmentation and personalization
- How to integrate your marketing system with your CRM
How to Get the Insights You Needed Yesterday… and Avoid Pitfalls Along the Way
This 19-page research report from Amperity and Microsoft dives into how FI’s should start comparing their user experience to big technology firms such as Google and Netflix.
In this report you will discover:
- Which financial institutions do you benchmark your customer or member experience against?
- Why data modernization is worth it
- Why you can’t put off data modernization any longer
Niching Down
This comprehensive, 22-page report from Nymbus explores that while traditional banking models are being disrupted, banks and credit unions can also find new opportunities.
In this report you will discover:
- How financial institutions can create new opportunities by launching a financial brand
- Why financial institutions need to take greater measures to innovate outside of their technology stacks
- How to identify your market and create a brand with niche products aligned to it
Automate or Die Hiring
This comprehensive, must-read report from SMA Technologies includes 16 pages of industry data, trends, analysis, graphs and charts aimed at arming you with what you need to make pressing automation choices now.
In this report you will discover:
- How automation can drive growth at banks while keeping hiring costs under control
- How financial institutions increasingly must figure out how to do more with less
- How financial institutions can overcome the significant IT skills gap
5 Trends Driving the Digital Banking Landscape
This 17-page research report from Alkami details why banks and credit unions need a nimble partner that helps them grow confidently and adapt quickly amid unrelenting change.
In this report you will discover:
- How banking executives setting their institution apart from the competition
- How banks and credit unions are adapting to the evolving digital landscape
- Learn how your digital transformation journey stacks up
Stop Fraud With Inbound Call Authentication Report
This 15-page research report from Neustar, a TransUnion Company, describes how you can use inbound call authentication to provide the experience customers expect without exposing your financial institution to sophisticated fraudsters.
In this report you will discover:
- Why fraudsters love your call center
- The benefits of inbound call authentication
- How to stop fraudsters before they attack
Insuring Success Report
By offering insurance, banks and credit unions can help people fill in this financial health gap. And guess what? They would gladly purchase insurance from you — their trusted financial institution.
Download this 32-page detailed report from Franklin Madison examining the untapped insurance opportunity for retail financial institutions, the benefits of offering insurance, the resources needed, and the best practices for success.
What You’ll Learn:
- How insurance can help banks and credit unions can help customers and members fill in financial health gaps
- Why offering insurance is more compelling than it ever has been before
- Why there’s never been a better time to offer insurance
Modern Connectivity Report
In today’s digital era where consumers demand integration among their accounts, financial applications and payment platforms, legacy systems can no longer keep pace. That’s where modern connectivity comes in. Download this 23-page, detailed report from MX detailing how modern connectivity, a consumer-permissioned method for data aggregation and enhancement, can help financial institutions share and access customer data in a faster, more reliable and more secure manner.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why it’s critical to offer customers a more secure and reliable connection to their financial accounts
- How banks can boost their bottom line with better products and services
- How to create effortless digital experiences across all applications and devices.
Creating a Truly Personalized Digital Banking Experience
With financial consumers exponentially adopting digital channels, it’s increasingly important for banking providers to deliver the level of customized experiences people now expect. Download this 20-page, data-driven research report from EVERFI exploring how financial marketers can deliver a more personalized experience across digital channels by tailoring interactions based on users’ generational segment and financial goals.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to deliver a more personalized, customized experience on digital channels
- How financial goals and desires vary by generation and how to tailor the digital response appropriately
- How to consider touch points as opportunities to solve issues and remove complications
Customer Experience Maturity for Financial Institutions
What makes a bank or credit union better at CX? Total Expert wanted to find out, which is why they conducted a survey of over 200 financial institution leaders to understand the maturity of their overall CX, then identify the specific customer engagement strategies that correspond to higher levels of maturity.
What You’ll Learn:
- What makes a bank or credit union better at CX
- Which upgrades are taking financial institutions to the next level
- Which banking products are key for high-performing institutions at CX
- Why certain decisions will define winners and losers in the CX race
2021 State of the Financial Marketer
Which financial institutions will win and thrive in 2021? Find out in this report from Total Expert, examining how evaluating financial institutions’ overall readiness to deliver on point customer experience.
What You’ll Learn:
- How banks and credit unions market to consumers
- How they leverage data throughout marketing and the customer experience
- The three challenges that most financial institutions are facing
- Four steps banks and credit unions can use to overcome the key obstacles
2021 Digital Lending Trends & Priorities
With new technologies advancing at a breakneck pace, how can traditional lenders keep up? Compounding the problem, financial institutions face mounting pressure from big techs, online challenger banks and digital lendtech competitors encroaching ever deeper into the auto, home and consumer lending marketplace. Download this report from CUNA Mutual Group examining the critical issues facing digital lenders in the year ahead.
What You’ll Learn:
- Where banking providers are placing their biggest digital bets to win big with borrowers
- The biggest digital lending challenges and headwinds traditional institutions must overcome
- Trends and priorities for transforming the digital lending experience
The Rise of Intelligent CRM in Banking
Download In the post-pandemic world, there will be fewer handshakes in branches. To build digital relationships, financial marketers will have to leverage data with new tools and smart technologies. This executive-level study examines the critical role of intelligent CRM tools and the data management solutions do you need to make the shift.
What You’ll Learn:
- What you need to do to improve CX and drive growth
- The challenges of sharing data and obtaining a full view of customers
- The looming ‘engagement gap’ facing smaller banks and credit unions
- Applying personalization at scale
Digital Approaches to Financial Education in the COVID-19 Era
How has the pandemic impacted bank and credit union marketing strategies? Find out how the COVID-19 pandemic and other megatrends have impacted bank marketing strategies — from the importance of digital engagement to the impact of financial education.
What You’ll Learn:
- The impact of COVID-19 on marketing strategies in the banking space
- How marketing investments are shifting and where budgets are being reallocated
- Why digital financial education tools are skyrocketing
- Insights from a survey of 200 financial institution marketing executives
The Ultimate Guide to Data, AI, + Personalized Financial Automation
When it comes to data and AI, are you ahead of the curve or behind the times? What can you do to take the lead? This 20-page guide is full of original survey data from banks and credit unions.
What You’ll Learn:
- How the industry is currently using data
- What percentage haven’t even started discussions about AI
- Why companies feel they’re blocked when it comes to data initiatives
- How you can evolve from being a financial intermediary to being a true financial advocate
Benchmark Report: A New Path Forward
Benchmark yourself against 195 U.S. banks and credit unions in this report from Temenos. Before you can move ahead in the post-COVID world, you need to understand where you are today.
In This Report:
- Coronavirus financial health pulse survey
- Understanding the four stages of growth in banking
- Critical investments and growth priorities for 2020
State of the Financial Marketers Report
What are the challenges facing bank and credit union marketers in the digital age? Find out in this 24-page report from TotalExpert.
What You’ll Learn:
- How financial marketers are pursuing personalization strategies
- The struggles financial marketers face with data collection and analytics
- How financial marketers are trying to humanize their CX
The World Branch Report
What’s the future of brick-and-mortar branches? Are they still relevant? Find out in this 60-page report examining the role of branches in the digital-first era.
What You’ll Learn:
- Current trends impacting branch networks, design and retail strategies in banking
- Why many banks and credit unions continue to invest in more branches
- The new tools and emerging concepts financial institutions are rolling out
- How branches are increasingly transitioning from transactions to interactions