Banks are under pressure to innovate – or at least they feel like they are. Young consumers are demanding more mobile features and less traditional banking options are offering them to them. Banks are responding by offering their own mobile features and also introducing new innovations in areas such as branch design and communications. Some have become actively involved in training young people in financial literacy and have developed innovative educational initiatives that will not only produce better-educated customers but begin building a relationship young people will carry with them as they become adults.

While there seems to be little danger that established customers will leave their traditional banks, there may be real danger that nontraditional banking alternatives will attract their fair share of new young customers as they enter the banking world. This is the reason traditional banks need to be concerned and to continue to expand their technological and service offerings; if they don’t, they face the prospect of attracting fewer of the people they need for their future customer base.

This report builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s:

• Retail Banks and Credit Unions – US, February 2014

• Payments – US, October 2014

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer research through Lightspeed GMI to explore consumer consumption of/attitudes and behaviors toward innovation in banking. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting. Fieldwork was conducted in September 2014 among a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18+ with access to the internet.

Mintel selects survey respondents so that they are proportionally balanced to the entire US adult population based on the key demographics of gender, age, household income, and region. Mintel also slightly oversamples, relative to the population, respondents that are Hispanic or Black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in our survey results. Please note that our surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (White, Black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

All estimated mail volume data and consumer direct mail marketing creatives are provided by Mintel Comperemedia.

Mintel Comperemedia is a searchable competitive database tracking direct mail, print and online advertising in the US and Canada, as well as email in the US. Comperemedia tracks information across eight sectors: Banking, Credit Card, Investments, Insurance, Mortgage and Loan, Telecom, Travel and Leisure, and Automotive.

For more information, please contact Account Services Management at 312.450.6353 or www.mintel.com.

The following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers