January 7, 2026
by Tom Sakash
As someone who works with organizations to help them develop strategies for reaching and resonating with consumers, while ALSO being a consumer myself, I admit it can be challenging sometimes to separate my own preferences from what the data says most consumers care about in a financial institution.
For example, contemporary research tells us that consumers choose their primary institution these days due to a variety of factors: Proximity to a branch (yes that still matters!); value—such as perks, rewards, and low fees; ease of use and digital accessibility; and possibly most importantly—safety and security of their personal information.
As if! MY only preference is that the financial institution is a CREDIT UNION, right credit union people? Right?! (Just kidding. But not really though).
The other reason why I often think about, ahem, myself, when contemplating growth strategies is because my millennial contemporaries and I are probably the highest value targets a financial institution can pursue these days. Sorry Gen Z but this is our time.
With an age range of early 30s to early 40s, millennials have now been in the workforce for nearly two decades. With established and (hopefully) still-growing careers, our earning potential and therefore our savings potential has never been higher. At the same time, many of us are finally ready to purchase homes (maybe second/forever homes), or second cars, or third cars for those of us who started families earlier than average, meaning we are likely the strongest demographic for borrowing as well.
Not to pile on our Gen Z friends, but the economics of buying a home for y’all (which were already bad for millennials) are super grim. Millennials on the other hand have had 20 years to develop the financial capacity to buy a home, or finance vehicles, or start looking at higher-yield savings accounts to place our, what’s that word again? Dare I say it? Savings?
Now, while the growth opportunity that millennials offer a credit union’s balance sheet is significant, so is the challenge of getting them (us) to switch our primary financial services provider. For those of us who have established relationships and have no plans to move (geographically), it’s hard to fathom a great reason for my family to switch institutions.
What I can envision is diversifying. And this is where I think credit unions can find some success. In research we’ve pulled together on current trends in financial services, a new behavior has emerged among consumers, especially for Gen Zers and millennials, called piecemeal banking. Essentially this means that consumers are not conducting all of their banking business with one financial institution any longer—as they were almost forced to do in the past—and are willing to break up their relationship across institutions based on the value and convenience they receive from each of those providers—managed all quite easily, actually, with a smartphone.
As credit union people, we’re all painstakingly aware of the proliferating competition that is crowding up the mind space of consumers in the market. One can’t turn on an NFL football game or a movie on a non-ad-free streaming service (yes, I’m a millennial who can probably afford the ad-free version, but is still likely sharing a password with a parent or four other people because, one, we’re all cheap and, two, we don’t want to give an extra dime to these mega entertainment corporations if we can help it) without seeing a Chime commercial that basically reads like a credit union ad less the words not-for-profit.
My point is, the options are out there, and so is the ability to split my money across dozens of financial services providers based on what works for me.
But for me (yes always me), perhaps the most transformative trend that has led to this phenomenon of “piecemeal banking” has been how easily one can open up an account at (or transfer money to) one of these new options. One of the major players in this evolution has been Plaid, which now seamlessly connects traditional financial institutions with the fintech options consumers want to use, and it allows consumers to open and fund accounts within, like, seconds.
In my opinion, those traditional providers that have implemented Plaid and also instant payments through RTP or FedNow are now in the best position possible to meet the accelerating (and I mean accelerating) requirement from younger consumers (hey man, I’m only 39, I’m still young!) to be able to do things quickly, easily, and all online. These institutions can also promote the fact that their connectivity and technology infrastructure allows customers or members to use whatever third-party app or fintech they would like, using the traditional institution’s accounts or cards as the safe base from which to conduct any and all transactions.
“Millennials, we love your creativity and willingness to try new things! A significant part of your meager savings in Bitcoin in a Coinbase account? Feels a little dicey! And probably not a place to invest all of your money! But we support your independent thinking and any semblance of a strategy to save for the future! So please use our accounts here at the credit union to fund your hopefully very small balance!”
That last piece is important, in that research finds that young people still use traditional financial institutions at a high rate, despite the increase in digital options, largely due to the importance of branches, trust, and security.
But the fact is, these consumers—these highly valuable, higher-earning, higher-borrowing, (really cool, fun, spontaneous, definitely not getting old or out of style millennials)—are still increasingly going to choose a traditional financial institution, if all else is equal, based on whether they’re keeping up with the speed of the online world.
Really, as I think about it more, as I write this article (without the help of ChatGPT mind you and thank you very much) the one thing that would actually motivate me to change my provider is if my primary credit union WASN’T keeping up with the digital trends that allow me to move and transact my money conveniently and with the fintechs and other third parties that I use.
It’s just the way of the world, at least how I see it, which is really all that matters.
