Author: Charitarth Sindhu, Fractional Business & AI Workflow Consultant
Primary bank loyalty is collapsing across North America. At FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego last May, EMARKETER Principal Analyst Tiffani Montez delivered the line that defined the week. Her verdict: “Banks no longer own the customer.” Consumers in the region now hold an average of 7.1 financial products and services, according to Montez’s keynote analysis. More than half sit outside their main bank.
The fragmentation is no longer a theory pushed by neobank founders. In addition, McKinsey, Accenture, J.D. Power, Capgemini, and the Federal Reserve now publish data telling the same story from different angles. Meanwhile, the bank response has shifted from quiet complacency to open competition, with Capital One paying $5.15 billion for Brex and JPMorgan charging Plaid for data access.
The Data Behind Primary Bank Loyalty Erosion
Primary bank loyalty no longer survives first contact with a competing app. Accenture’s Global Banking Consumer Study 2025 puts the figure at 7.0 financial products per North American consumer. Of those, 3.9 sit at the main bank and 3.1 elsewhere. In fact, Hearts & Wallets data goes deeper. The share of US households holding accounts at two or more competing firms climbed from 41% a decade ago to 67% today.
Meanwhile, the shopping behaviour at account-opening time has flipped. McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2025 found that only 4% of new US checking applicants stick with their existing bank without comparison shopping, down from 25% in 2018. Likewise, J.D. Power tracked that 52% of new checking accounts opened in Q3 2025 were additional rather than replacement. Of those additional accounts, 72% landed at a different provider, and 54% became the consumer’s new primary.
Indeed, the destination is concentrated. For instance, Chime captured 12.8% of all new US checking openings in Q4 2025, roughly 40% more than Chase. Cash App now reports 9.3 million primary banking actives, up 22% year-over-year. SoFi crossed 14.7 million members in Q1 2026. Still, traditional banks retain primary status for the long tail of older customers. That means primary bank loyalty among younger cohorts has dropped sharper than the headline numbers suggest.
How B2B Erosion Outpaces Consumer Fragmentation
The business banking story moves harder in the same direction. A young company in 2026 can run on Mercury for accounts, Ramp for cards, Bill.com for AP, Stripe for AR, Wise for FX, and Toast or Shopify Capital for credit. Notably, none of these is a traditional bank. Nevertheless, each absorbs share of wallet that used to flow to the chartered incumbent. As a result, primary bank loyalty in the SME segment now starts from a lower base.
In fact, the numbers track the shift. Mercury hit 300,000 customers and $248 billion in transaction volume in 2025, up 59% year-over-year, with three years of GAAP profitability. Similarly, Ramp reached around $1 billion annualised revenue at a $32 billion valuation. Likewise, Airwallex doubled its TPV to $235 billion and crossed $1 billion in annual revenue. By contrast, several regional banks reported flat or shrinking commercial loan books over the same period.
Of course, the loudest concession came in January 2026. Capital One agreed to acquire Brex for $5.15 billion in a 50/50 cash and stock deal that closed April 7. CEO Richard Fairbank framed the rationale as buying AI-native technology Capital One could not build organically. Even more telling, Mercury filed for an OCC national bank charter in December 2025. Revolut filed its own US charter application on March 5, 2026.
Beyond that, the merchant side echoes the same story. Capgemini’s World Payments Report 2026 reported bank satisfaction at just 15% among small merchants and 22% among mid-sized ones. Moreover, the same report found 40% of merchants actively considering shifting financial services to PayTechs.
Why Primary Bank Loyalty Is Structural
Three independent forces have hollowed out primary bank loyalty, and they reinforce each other. First, aggregator infrastructure has commoditised multi-banking. Plaid now connects roughly 150 million US consumers, or one in two American adults with a bank account, across more than 12,000 institutions. As a result, the cognitive cost of holding a fourth or fifth financial relationship has fallen to near zero.
Second, data-portability regulation now codifies the right almost everywhere. UK Open Banking processed 351 million payments in 2025, up 57% year-over-year. The EU reached provisional political agreement on PSD3 in November 2025. Brazil’s Pix moved $4.6 trillion across 63.4 billion transactions in 2024. However, the US has gone the other way. The CFPB weakened Section 1033, and JPMorgan now charges Plaid for data access.
Third, distribution has moved from branch to platform. For instance, Bain projects US embedded finance transaction value at $7 trillion by 2026, or roughly 10% of all US financial transactions. Meanwhile, the chartered bank goes invisible inside Shopify Balance, Toast Capital, and Lyft Direct. The same dynamic shapes how banks handle DeFi risks and opportunities too.
How Banks Are Fighting To Win Back Primary Bank Loyalty
Primary bank loyalty is now a quarterly battle on earnings calls. Jamie Dimon’s 2025 annual letter named consumer payments as “a new battleground” and cited Revolut, Stripe, Block, and Citadel Securities by name. Similarly, Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan warned that yield-bearing stablecoins could drain up to $6 trillion in US deposits. Meanwhile, BofA touts 92% of its 38 million consumer checking accounts as primary. By contrast, JPMorgan’s consumer chief Marianne Lake conceded in December that yield-seeking behaviour had not moderated as much as the bank expected.
The response sorts into four buckets. First, M&A leads it. Capital One closed the $35.3 billion Discover deal in May 2025 before adding Brex eight months later. Likewise, BMO digested the $16.3 billion Bank of the West acquisition. In addition, JPMorgan has done roughly 80 fintech deals since 2021. Then, Banking-as-a-Service plays also help banks capture flow from inside fintechs. For example, Column grew revenue 219% year-over-year in 2025 powering both Mercury and Brex. Cross River generated $516 million in 2025 revenue powering Affirm, Coinbase, and Stripe. Each strategy aims at the same target: rebuilding primary bank loyalty before challengers convert another quarter of new customers. AI in finance tooling now plays a central role on both sides.
Meanwhile, Cash App, Chime, and Revolut keep moving up the stack. For instance, Cash App launched 11 simultaneous products in November 2025. Chime followed its June 2025 IPO with Chime Prime in April 2026, layering 5% cash back and 3.75% APY for members with $3,000-plus monthly direct deposit. Similarly, Revolut hit a $75 billion valuation in November 2025, then filed for a US national bank charter in March 2026.
Primary bank loyalty no longer functions as a default position. Consumers and businesses now curate their own portfolio of relationships. The structural shift toward mobile banking and embedded finance continues to set the terms for the next quarter.
