Digital proliferation, evolving customer demand patterns, need for cost containment & efficiency, high commoditization, increasing number of cyberattacks, and rising threat from non-banking competitors are some of the challenges upsetting large retail banking corporations in the United States. Banks are increasingly aligning their business priorities around next-generation technology themes and are focusing on formulating their go-to-market strategy with customer-centric offerings.

Although the digital banking channels have become mainstream, banks are consistently incorporating value-added functionalities and upgrading security standards on these channels to boost customer loyalty and gain a competitive edge. At the same time, there is growing focus on mobilizing the power of social media networks for more cost-effective customer service. Large retail banks are also channelizing their investments in setting up smaller, more flexible and customer-friendly branches equipped with multiple self-service technologies to optimize the operational costs and enhance their appeal to the millennial customers at the same time.

In this research, we analyze consumer-facing digital functionalities as well as their associated business impact on 26 large U.S. retail banks. These banks have been mapped on Everest Group’s Ability | Performance | Experience (APEX) Matrix, which is a composite index of a range of distinct metrics related to each bank’s customer-facing digital investments and the associated business impact. In this report we focus on:

• Assessment of the bank’s digital functionality on multiple capability-related dimensions
• Characteristics of leading banks on individual themes assessed on the Everest Group’s APEX Matrix for digital effectiveness in banking

SCOPE OF THE ANALYSIS

• Industry: Retail banking
• Geography: The United States
• Enterprises: Includes 26 leading U.S. banks, short-listed on the basis of size as well as their focus on retail banking

SOURCES LEVERAGED

Only publicly-available information (i.e., information from a consumers’ perspective) has been used for the analysis in this report. Key sources include:

• Google Play and App Store
• Demos / consumer access to mobile apps and online platforms of the banks that are assessed
• Social media platforms – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube
• Aggregators/tools – Alexa, App Anie, Likealyzer, SEMRush, SocialBlade, and Twitonomy
• Company filings and press releases (annual reports, investor presentations, SEC filings, etc.)