Cover Story Banking Millennials

since customers seek frictionless and seamless experiences. With 97% of Gen Z using a mobile device to access their bank accounts, banks should also be building their mobile apps for better, more seamless user experiences.

Any organisation, including those in the financial services industry, must provide engaging customer experiences if it is to expand consistently. To ensure that young people are contacted in a way that demonstrates they are "known" and "understood," banks will need to use data at a granular level. In order to be more engaging with the use of in-app filters and live streams, they need to be utilizing technology for algorithms that better suggest relevant recommendations provide a personalized shopping experience, reduce friction between purchase desire and checkout, and do all of the aforementioned. The expectations of Generation Z include immersive experiences, possibly in the metaverse. Additionally, banks should think about investigating the application of VR and AR for customer engagement and service delivery.

Support their financial goals

A majority of millennials and Gen Z are stressed about their financial future, coupling a lack of financial literacy with high educational debt, lower savings and rising expenses. They want a banking partner who is aware of their particular issues and way of life and offers solutions in line with those considerations. Banks must provide useful solutions that will aid these clients in achieving their objectives if they are to be viewed by these demographics as the partner of choice. An example of this is an in-app investment feature that educates customers about shares, mutual funds and bonds and provides ‘how-to’ content on the first steps in investing wisely.

Engage with them where they are

Online time is a major pastime among Gen Zers. The majority of them acquired their first smartphone around the age of 12, having grown up with fast-speed internet in their pockets. They are also the biggest gamers and users of social media. Gen Z in the US heavily relies on social media platforms for connecting, sharing, and consuming content. In actuality, 61% of them access the daily news through social media. This offers banks a fantastic chance to highlight their presence on all of the major social media platforms with platform-catered content that goes beyond offering a service for sale.

The average attention span of members of Generation Z is eight seconds, according to research. If you don't quickly capture their interest, you can lose them forever. Bank participation will need to be more logical. Participating on social media will also assist in keeping a pulse on current events and continually increase accessibility to new payment methods. In order to maintain Gen Zers' attention and perception of the value of the service, this can inform ongoing enhancements to its apps and features.

Leverage cutting-edge technology integrating fintech trends

When catering to a generational cohort that creates digital trends rather than follows them, banks must also boost their technological game. The most recent developments in fintech, including blockchain technology, robotic process automation (RPA), microservices-based architecture, cryptocurrency, and others, must be actively implemented by banks. Banks can also concentrate on creating immersive, featurerich platforms that will persuade these clients of the technological prowess and customer obsession of their financial partner.

In addition to experimenting with cutting-edge new technology, banks must make sure that their fundamental structures are sound. Making mobile banking for customers seamless is a good illustration of this. Nearly 98% of millennials and 99% of members of Generation Z use mobile banking apps to conduct normal banking operations, according to the Digital Banking Attitudes Study by Chase. Banks should offer a userfriendly, entertaining app that consumers may use independently for as many transactions as feasible, without having to go to a branch or phone a helpline, to guarantee that these customers have a seamless journey.

Ensure transparency, inspire trust

According to a recent Salesforce survey, only 50% of millennials and 42% of Gen Z trust a firm, with customers citing lack of trustworthiness as the most important area in which brands needed to improve. In addition, 59% of Gen Z and 57% of millennials are worried about how businesses handle their customer data.

Although the poll included various industries, it is an indication of the young consumer's innate desire to work with trustworthy, moral partners. Similar to Millennials and Gen Z, a bank's reputation and business practices are just as significant to them as the services it really provides. Therefore, a modern bank must make sure it has a culture of openness, abides by strict data privacy laws, supports causes outside of its own industry, and presents itself as an organisation with integrity and honesty.

The Fintech sector will face new problems as a result of millennials and Generation Z's fast-changing consumer expectations and behaviour. These clients demand that banks develop a distinctive strategy—one that fuses cutting-edge technical know-how with traditional values like honesty and trust. Banks may easily survive in the competitive environment and grow in this digital-first era by adopting new digital technology and building strong relationships with their young customers.

The zooming Z's

According to the most recent statistics from Morgan Stanley Research and AlphaWise, the company's in-house survey and market data research arm, 47% of 16 and 17-year-old smartphone owners use mobile banking choices. This percentage rises to 71% among 18 and 19-year-olds. These numbers are from a poll of 6,000 consumers, aged 16 to 34, that Morgan Stanley Chief US Economist Ellen Zentner and AlphaWise derived from a survey in 2022.

The survey also provided information about Millennials, who in 2022 became the