2025 Financial Services Trends to Watch
New Opportunities for Financial Providers to Grow Deposits and Engagement
Last year, we declared 2024 as the year of financial data intelligence. From embedded financial tools to truly personalized experiences to Open Banking, data can drive better outcomes for both consumers and the financial providers who serve them.
In fact, research commissioned by MX from Forrester Consulting showed that 79% of North American data leaders agree financial data intelligence is critical to their organization’s success in the future. And, 80% agreed being able to utilize consumer financial data effectively would be a significant competitive advantage for them.
We saw great strides in how the financial services industry is bringing data to life to drive results. The adoption of artificial intelligence to streamline processes and deliver better services took center stage at industry events like Money 20/20 USA. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its long-awaited rulemaking to establish clear consumer financial data rights. And, leveraging consumer-permissioned data to meet rising consumer expectations for personalized experiences has become paramount.
In 2025, we predict data will remain the central piece in every financial provider’s strategy. However, we believe it’s time to kick things into the next gear. Heightened consumer demands, an evolving economic landscape, and a change in regime for the U.S. government will bring significant opportunities for financial providers looking to grow deposits and improve customer engagement this year.
Here are our top predictions for 2025 and how financial providers can turn this year’s top trends into their next competitive advantage:
1. Regulations Slow Down, but Open Banking Speeds Up
Open Banking is nothing new to North America and consumer-permissioned data sharing is widespread. The Financial Data Exchange reports more than 94 million consumer accounts are now actively utilizing its FDX API for secure open finance data sharing. But, new regulations from the U.S. (with the final CFPB ruling on Section 1033) and Canada (with last month’s 2024 Fall Statement that unveiled Canada’s consumer-driven banking framework) are creating new standards and mandates for how data sharing moves forward.
In the United States, the results of the recent federal election are sparking speculation on what changes may affect the CFPB. Regardless of federal regime changes and new regulations, Open Banking holds a permanent place within the U.S. financial services industry. In fact, our latest survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers [releasing next month] show 41% of respondents have brought different financial accounts together into one view. And, both consumers and financial providers are already seeing the value of Open Banking in the form of better insights, faster processes, and more personalized experiences.
In Canada, the Canadian government released its Complete Consumer-Driven Banking Framework as part of its 2024 Fall Economic Statement last month. The framework is built around three primary goals:
- To ensure financial safety and stability for Canadians
- To protect consumers while giving them access to tools to make informed financial decisions
- To promote competition and innovation in the financial services and fintech sectors.
Both the U.S. and Canada frameworks are currently expected to go into effect in early to mid-2026.
In 2025, we predict Open Banking adoption will speed up as those who lead from the front seek to gain the competitive advantage.
According to Jane Barratt, Chief Advocacy Officer and Head of Global Public Policy at MX, “the institutions that adopt Open Banking and compete to deliver the best experience will be more likely to earn consumer loyalty and engagement for the long term.”
In addition, most of us have seen the now-famous quote from PNC Chairman, President, and CEO William Demchak: “We’ll pull share out of smaller banks who won’t have the technology to be able to take advantage of open banks.”
Financial institutions who are slow to adopt an open banking approach will be in a more vulnerable position as other financial providers go all-in on Open Banking to provide better products and services to keep their customers and grow their businesses.
With Open Banking, and more broadly — Open Finance, financial providers can unlock the door to gain better insights about competitor products that their customers utilize and create precise targeting and compelling offers. And, that’s what consumers want. They want their providers to know them. They want personalized products, services, and offers. And, they want a good mobile and digital experience. But, most financial institutions are missing key details on where consumers share data — details they can gain from Open Banking.
Financial providers who start now with Open Finance will be in a better position to deliver on consumer expectations and will have the advantage over those who choose to wait. The most important step financial institutions can take in 2025 is ensuring their open banking strategy doesn’t get put on the back burner.
2. Consumer Expectations Evolve in the Fight Against Fraud and Scams
Fraud and identity theft cases continue to reach new highs each year, with no signs of slowing down. According to Alloy’s 2024 State of Fraud Benchmark report, 62% of banks, fintechs, and credit unions saw an increase in the number of fraud attempts on consumer accounts in the past 12 months. And, data from the Federal Trade Commission reports there were 290,000 reported cases of identity theft and 117,000 cases of credit card fraud in just the third quarter of 2024 alone.
At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence make it easier for bad actors to take advantage of consumers and businesses. In fact, Deloitte's Center for Financial Services predicts that genAI could enable fraud losses to reach $40 billion by 2027 in the United States.
In 2025, we — and everyone else — expect fraud to continue to rise. To combat this, we predict financial institutions and fintechs will rethink how they arm consumers to better protect themselves against fraudulent transactions, identity theft, scams, and more.
From the account opening process to onboarding to ongoing money management, every touchpoint with a consumer is an opportunity for businesses to guide and protect. Our research shows that 67% of consumers trust their financial providers to protect them from fraud and other security risks.
However, at the same time, more than 1 in 4 consumers have been a victim of fraudulent transactions on a financial account in the past 2 years. And, as scams become more convincing, consumers are at a greater risk. It’s no longer just stolen identities, credit cards, or account numbers to worry about. In 2024, we saw significant debate about where the liability falls when a consumer is duped and authorizes a peer-to-peer money transfer or other payment.
So how can financial providers start to live up to the high expectations that consumers have set for them? While the right systems and processes can make or break fraud and risk management, organizations also need to remember the human element.
The financial providers who invest in both modernizing processes and systems — and improving customer communications and onboarding to better educate consumers — will earn and keep a consumer’s trust and business for the long term.
3. Entering a New Era of Financial App Consolidation by Consumers
The average consumer has 3 or more finance-related mobile apps on their phone today, according to MX’s consumer research. And, among Millennials — the most prolific mobile bankers, more than 1 in 10 Millennial consumers have 6 or more finance-related mobile apps. But do consumers like having this many apps?
Earlier this year, Chase’s Digital Banking Attitudes Survey found 86% of consumers said they prefer to use one app for all their banking. And, our own research echoes a similar mentality — 57% of U.S. consumers said they would pull together all of their finances into a single mobile app to make them easier to track and manage if they had the option.
Last year, we saw the shutdown of standalone personal financial management platforms like Mint in favor of embedded financial wellness tools. While this shift was market-led, we expect to see another shift led by consumers this year.
In 2025, we predict consumers will start to take a Marie Kondo approach to their finance-related mobile apps. Does it bring joy? Does it deliver the tools and features they want and need?
We expect consumers will start to demand more guided financial tools that meet them where they are — i.e., the app they use most often — rather than a do-it-yourself money management approach that requires them to access a multitude of apps and websites.
The Financial Brand points out that “the quality of the mobile banking app offered by a consumer’s banking provider can be the basis of a tighter relationship — or break the inertia that traditionally kept unhappy customers onboard.”
To meet rising consumer expectations, as well as avoid being one of the apps that consumers choose to stop using, the industry has work to do. Consumer Reports found in its evaluation of mobile banking apps that few apps delivered a full range of digital tools for financial well-being, including automated savings features, the ability to direct a portion of a user’s direct deposit to savings, budgeting tools, goal-setting features, and spending indicators.
The banks, credit unions, and fintechs who go beyond basic functionality and deliver rich, intuitive tools that can guide consumers on their financial journey will win customer engagement and dollars in the long run.
4. AI Will Get a Dose of Reality
AI continues to be a hot topic across the financial industry and the world at-large. In fact, IDC estimates worldwide spending on technology to support AI strategies will reach $337 billion in 2025 — and more than double to $749 billion by 2028.
However, many financial providers are increasingly asking questions about how to realize the value of AI. And, McKinsey’s latest global survey on AI shows that while adoption has increased significantly across organizations and industries, the breadth of adoption remains low and many organizations are still in the experimental phase. Can AI live up to the promise?
John Sun, CEO of Spring Labs, said at the 2024 Money Experience Summit, “at the end of the day, a good AI product should not be defined by its AI-ness. It should be defined by its value to your organization.”
McKinsey says that capturing value from AI transformations “requires a fundamental rewiring of how a company operates.” We couldn’t agree more. In 2025, financial providers who are still experimenting with AI will reset their plans and prioritize getting their data strategy right as the reality of adopting AI sets in.
The true value lies in the data and its impact on an organization. AI is only as good as the data that powers it. If that data is inaccurate, confusing, or outdated, financial providers are left making decisions, running operations, or serving customers based on bad information. Data in dictates data out.
In addition, too much data can create unintended consequences that consumers and the financial services providers should be wary about. For instance, data rights and privacy laws around the world have done little to stem the data exhaust generated by business models that may not be in the best interest of consumers to date.
Financial institutions who take a step back to build the right data foundation to fuel AI use cases — and prevent use cases that could cause inadvertent harm — will earn the right to experiment even more in 2025 and beyond. And, done right, AI can fuel the next wave of intelligent, automated services and products to meet customer expectations and business needs.
5. Caution Against Creating Under-data’ed Consumers
In the United States, the FDIC reports 5.6 million households were considered unbanked in 2023 — meaning no one in the household had a checking or savings account with a bank or credit union. And, another 19 million households are underbanked, meaning they use nonbank products to meet their core financial needs.
While the top reason unbanked households don’t have an account is because they “don’t have enough money to meet minimum balance requirements,” the second most cited reason is that they don’t trust banks. In addition, many consumers are turning to non-banks as their primary financial provider, which complicates things even further.
This is alarming in an age where banks are no longer simply a repository of money. They are repositories of data — data that is used to create a credit history and determine credit worthiness to apply for loans, credit cards, and more.
Many financial providers are turning to alternative data — data beyond a credit report, such as payroll data, cash flow, etc. — to provide lending solutions for underbanked or unbanked customers. In fact, Experian’s 2023 State of Alternative Credit Data Report shows 62% of financial institution firms are using alternative data to improve risk profiling and credit decisioning capabilities.
The use of alternative data in credit decisioning brings us close to the goal of financial health and inclusion for all Americans. And, as Open Banking makes it even easier for consumers to share their financial data with third parties, lenders believe it will become even easier to collect and consider alternative data points in their credit risk assessments.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said this about the value of alternative data: “This means that individuals without years and years of credit history or those who may have had stumbles in the past can now be evaluated based on their current income and expenses.”
However, at the same time that financial providers are better harnessing data to support consumers, some consumers are becoming wary of sharing their data. A recent USA TODAY Blueprint survey shows that the majority of (79%) Americans are concerned about how their data is used. And, a survey from KPMG shows 30% of U.S. adults aren’t willing to share their personal data for any reason.
Data, or the lack thereof, can make or break financial wellness. In 2025, we predict that financial services providers will need to evaluate how they gain the trust of consumers and avoid creating a class of “under-data’ed” consumers — those who don’t share financial data or don’t have data to share.
Consumers that are unwilling to share their data will be at a disadvantage as financial providers increasingly leverage data to personalize products and offers, improve customer service, and support financial wellness.
The solution to this potential challenge is all about creating relevant, personalized, and transparent experiences for consumers. And, our previous research shows that consumers will share even more data if it results in a better experience — 49% say they would give their financial provider access to more of their data.
So what should you do today? USA TODAY’s Blueprint survey points to 4 key areas of focus that consumers want financial providers to lean into:
- Enhance data security and protection measures (52% of respondents want this)
- Give consumers more control over what data is collected and how it’s used (48%).
- Provide increased transparency about how the data is used (44%).
- Communicate more clearly about their rights concerning their data (40%).
At MX, we believe the key lies in investing and innovating around data-driven tools and an open banking infrastructure to ensure that consumer-permissioned data is leveraged securely and ethically to deliver positive outcomes for consumers. In addition, in the same way that the industry has emphasized financial literacy, we should consider data literacy the next educational frontier for consumers.
It is not enough to simply have the data. It requires the right tools to enhance it and make it actionable for consumers and financial providers.
Financial providers who focus on building trust with consumers and leading with privacy-first principles will not only avoid creating a class of under-data’ed consumers, but also increase engagement with their customers to drive better results.