To Win Gen Z, Community Banks and Credit Unions Should Target Their Parents
By David Longobardi
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Does Gen X hold the keys to effective Gen Z marketing? The idea seems counterintuitive given that both generations, in different ways, have been described as independent. But financial institution marketers would do well to take a closer look — because Gen Xers are more often than not the parents of Gen Zers, and in many ways the hidden engine behind their economic and social behaviors.
Reality check: Banks and credit unions have long worked to strengthen their position with Gen Z — nearly three-quarters of which is now 18 or older, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. They’ve invested in mobile capabilities, adapted their messaging for social channels, and tried generally to emulate fintechs. Yet their share of Gen Z relationships has steadily fallen: Community institutions held 19% of Gen Z’s primary financial relationships in 2023, 12% in 2024, and 9% in 2025, according to ProSight Banking Outlook.
Key insight: Part of the solution may lie in the cohort that came two generations earlier. “Many financial institutions already have strong relationships with Gen X, but they struggle to build the same connection with younger generations,” said Lee Wetherington, senior director of corporate strategy at Jack Henry. Adding a Gen X-rooted approach to their Gen Z marketing toolkits, he suggests, can help these institutions unlock new insights and engagement models, providing both a lens for understanding Gen Z and a conduit to influence and reach them.
What Gen X Can Teach Us About Gen Z
Start with independence. Born roughly between 1965 and 1980, Gen X is known for its self-reliance. Dubbed the “latchkey generation” — because their childhood and adolescence coincided with the rise of dual-income and single-parent families — Gen Xers have lived through everything from 1970s stagflation to the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-08.
Gen Z faces plenty of economic uncertainty too, including steep inflation, high housing costs, and unstable employment markets. But they express their independence differently. On one hand, they are highly likely to use digital self-service platforms: 72% prefer digital-only platforms for financial activities and 69% use their bank’s mobile app weekly. On the other hand, Gen Zers — they grew up as helicopter kids not latchkey kids — are more likely to consult their parents on money management. In one study, over 60% said they rely on parents for financial guidance, living arrangements, or direct assistance.
And then there is trust and its close cousin authenticity. Wetherington believes community banks and credit unions already hold an advantage here, built on their locally-rooted relationships. But they have to press it. According to research by YouGov, Gen Z reports relatively low trust in legacy banks, yet 73% say they would not give up traditional banking entirely. Gen Z runs day-to-day finances on their phones — roughly 90%+ prefer mobile apps for routine tasks — but still relies on physical branches for high-friction transactions and high-stakes milestones.
Key insight: The quest for authenticity is especially present in marketing and messaging preferences, and in this case the two generations share many of the same values. Wetherington describes Gen X as skeptical of generic marketing and unwanted outreach, a disposition shaped in part by years of economic disruption and institutional change. And he sees much the same response in Gen Z. Younger consumers, he said, want to see “real people saying real things” that can improve their financial lives. The objective for a financial institution is to make their communications useful, credible, and specific.
The older generation consumes a mix of traditional and digital media, including podcasts and streaming, while Gen Z’s media mix tilts more heavily digital. But many of the same channels reach both audiences and can provide common ground for coordinated messaging. Wetherington cites short-form video, via Instagram and YouTube, as formats that can resonate across the two generations.
The two generations also respond to relevance more than product promotion. Wetherington advises institutions serving Gen X to begin with the financial problems customers are trying to solve rather than with another checking account or loan. And Jack Henry’s Gen Z research makes a similar case: growth depends on understanding how younger customers earn and manage money, then aligning services with needs from getting their first job to launching their first start-up.
Gen X as a Gateway to Gen Z
Family banking relationships seldom pass from one generation to the next these days, and younger consumers increasingly spread their financial activity across multiple providers. (According to one study, the typical Gen Z couple has more than 30 financial relationships.) But more recently, institutions have been exploring new ways to breathe life into the “older” model, leveraging Gen X parent relationships to plant the seeds of future engagement with their children.
What to do now: To reach Gen Z, institutions should begin with the Gen X customers already in their checking-account base, Wetherington argues. Rather than spend millions on national advertising to compete with neobanks and fintechs, they can use the channels Gen X frequents to introduce services that address Gen Z needs.
Wetherington argues that financial institutions should think more deliberately about “family banking structures” — designing products and services around financial activity that already takes place among parents and children. For Gen X parents supporting younger adults, that can include co-managed accounts that make it easier to transfer money, monitor activity, or help manage expenses.
Key insight: Youth banking and co-managed accounts give institutions a way to intentionally establish continuity, by bringing children into the relationship while parents still have control over their financial lives. A key feature of such accounts is that they enable parent-to-child financial activities that would otherwise exist without the institution’s involvement. For example, a bank-hosted youth-banking platform can support allowances and spending oversight. Financial education can be built into the same experience, including hands-on applications that support savings goals and features that let parents lend money to children and charge interest.
Finally, financial institutions must ensure the younger relationship survives the end of parental involvement, because the traditional pattern of generational banking — where a child’s first account often led naturally to a long-term relationship — can no longer be assumed.
Wetherington advises developing family-centered experiences that evolve with major life transitions, bearing in mind that Gen Z today spans a wide range of financial stages, from teenagers to adults approaching 30. He cites small business banking as one area to emphasize: the young person managing a personal account today may already be running a business on the side. Identifying that activity early, and meeting it with relevant products and insights, can help turn a first account into an independent relationship.
