Why the Banks Growing Fastest Aren't the Ones That Know Their Customers Best

Right now, a digital-native institution is opening accounts and taking deposits several times faster than its bank and credit union competitors. Ask why, and someone might say they have better technology, or a cleaner app and lower fees, aimed at younger customers who don't need to visit a physical branch.

That explanation is incomplete. The truth is, the banks winning aren't the ones that understand their customers best. They're the ones who act quickest on what they already know, sending the right message through the right channel before the customer moves on. That's a matter of execution, and the incumbents are better equipped for it than they think.

The Story Everyone Tells About Fintech Growth

In the third quarter of 2025, Chime captured 13 percent of new checking account openings, more than Chase at 9 percent and ahead of Wells Fargo and Bank of America at 7 percent. A company considered a "startup" by many executives is now winning more new checking relationships than the largest banks in the country.

It's the same with deposits. SoFi grew its deposit base from $26.0 billion to $37.5 billion in 2025, a jump of about 44 percent in a single year, at a time when deposits across the industry were growing in low single digits.

The banks Chime has outpaced aren't behind on the tech. Their apps are strong and their fees are competitive, and they still lost ground. If better technology were the whole answer, the banks that already have it would be growing this fast, too.

It Was Never About Knowing More

Because neobanks were built recently, their customer data lives in a single system instead of a dozen that were never designed to talk to each other. When a customer misses a payment or opens a new product, the neobank can respond sooner, and the offer is aimed at that person, not a segment of a hundred thousand.

Even at the fastest-moving institutions, most of what looks like real-time personalization is still a step behind the customer. The system flags a pattern and sends a well-targeted message, but usually a day later and through a different channel. McKinsey describes it as spotting critical moments, like a churn signal or an idle balance, before they pass. Fintechs are good at that.

What almost no one does is act while the customer is still on the phone or in the app. Which means the race is still open.

The Incumbent's Hidden Advantage

Incumbents hold two assets no neobank can build quickly. A traditional bank almost always knows its customers better than the neobank does. Years of accounts, transactions, loans, and service history build a picture of the customer no three-year-old company can match. In the same article, McKinsey showed that banks sit on more customer data than firms in nearly any other industry yet still trail other consumer businesses in putting it to use.

Incumbents have a second asset they often overlook. Every day, a large bank's call centers and branches handle thousands of customer conversations. Neobanks don't. Their model runs on self-service, with human contact kept to a minimum. A bank that acts on those conversations while they're happening is doing work no neobank can.

Both assets are real. The problem is that this knowledge is scattered, so the employee on the call is working without the full record, and when it finally reaches them, the customer has hung up. Gartner has found that only 14 percent of organizations across industries have built a single, complete view of the customer.

You Don't Have to Rebuild Everything

Acting in the moment sounds like years of work merging everything into one platform. That isn't required. The systems can stay where they are. The employee on the call needs to see what the bank knows, while the customer is still on the line.

The employee also needs permission to act. Information on a screen changes nothing if the request has to go to another team and the customer gets a call back tomorrow. The best banker in any branch already works this way, reading the account and hearing the hesitation before making the offer. The work is making that judgment available to everyone else who picks up a phone.

Start small. One workflow, one moment worth catching, measured against a number you report. Take the first missed payment on a loan that has never been late, and watch what changes before extending to the next.

Use the Base You Have

SoFi closed 2025 with 13.7 million members, up 35 percent on the year, and 20.2 million products in use. Roughly 40 percent of the new products opened that year went to people who were already members.

For incumbents, that growth would be cheaper than it looks. Winning a brand-new customer is expensive. Selling a second or third product to someone who trusts you costs far less, and those customers stay longer. Every account you add teaches you a little more about that person, and the next offer gets more precise. SoFi's growth comes less from finding new members than from selling more products to its current ones.

The real advantage here belongs to the incumbents, not the fast growers. They know more about their customers, and they talk to them every day.

When a customer calls to ask about a transfer, the agent who answers can see the large deposit that landed yesterday in checking. The offer to move it somewhere it earns more gets made on that call, not in an email three days later. Every bank has that knowledge.

Whoever acts first will win, and there's no rule saying it has to be a fintech.

Rahul Kumar is the vice president and general manager of financial services and insurance for Talkdesk with a focus on driving thought leadership and industry-specific innovation. In 14 years of financial services, he has helped multiple organizations lead large-scale digital transformation programs. Over the last several years, he has helped several institutions realize significant business value through contact center modernization strategies. He is passionate about transforming member and customer experience through innovation, next-generation capabilities, and modern technology platforms.