The financial services landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. To help you stay ahead, we've compiled a collection of insights, trends, and predictions from our clients — industry leaders and innovators who are shaping the future of finance. From technological advancements and regulatory shifts to changing consumer expectations, we explore the key forces driving change in 2025 and beyond.
What trend(s) do you see for 2025?
Steve Reider, President, Bancography
Bancography foresees emerging anxiety and reconsideration of how far is too far for automation, as small businesses shunted to call centers and consumers directed to chatbots turn from regional/national banks to community banks and credit unions that maintain in-person service from dedicated personal bankers/relationship managers; smaller institutions will especially pursue the most profitable consumer and small-business segments with a more personalized service proposition.
Erin Wynn, Executive Director, Product Management, Candescent
Rising financial anxieties, rate fluctuations, and mixed messages about AI have added complexity to financial services this year. Looking forward to 2025, we expect banks to embrace the opportunity to offer relevant, personalized and contextual financial resources to support consumers as financial struggles persist.
Preetha Pulusani, CEO, DeepTarget
In 2025, credit unions will focus on digital transformation. But that has been an industry buzz phrase for more than a decade, so what are we talking about? The key difference: going beyond digitizing existing processes to fundamentally reimagining how financial services can proactively serve and empower members through intelligent, predictive, interconnected technologies.
Allan Rayson, Founder, Finov8r
2025 will be the year of the adoption of AI and Large Language Models among the community and regional banks. Banks are going to be looking under every rock for ways to enhance profitability. Gaining efficiencies through the adoption of AI will be one of the ways they find it in 2025 and beyond.
Tori VanCura-Rutland, Chief Growth Officer, HC3
In 2025, banks can transform monthly statements into valuable tools by leveraging transactional data to uncover trends, offer tailored insights and deepen customer relationships. Banks that make statements a strategic part of the customer journey will drive loyalty, retain customers and provide added value.
Jack Henry Corporate Strategy Team
Stabilizing deposit growth presents opportunities, but yield-hungry consumers and maturing short-term CDs will challenge financial institutions to prioritize personalization, innovation, and flexibility. Collaborating with AI vendors will help financial institutions efficiently fund loans and scale without losing their personal touch. As open banking matures, financial institutions will provide consumers with a central hub for managing data and privacy settings.
Alex McLeod, CEO, Parlay Finance
In 2025, credit unions will prioritize enhancing member experience through strategic fintech partnerships, particularly in business lending. Key trends will include deploying AI-powered systems that provide deeper member insights and predictive analytics, enabling personalized financial solutions for both consumer and business members.
Isio Nelson, Managing Director, Thought Leadership, Fraud & Research, ProSight Financial Association
Our research indicates the top challenges in 2025 for financial services organizations will be deposit growth and new customer acquisition, while also focusing on operational efficiency. Similar to 2024, top investment priorities include technology integration, improving customer digital experiences and fraud mitigation.
Sarah Martin, CEO, Pulsate
With up to 30% of members checking their banking apps daily, there are more opportunities than ever to engage account holders and meet their needs. However, most digital banking technology today is better at facilitating transactions than recognizing and addressing members' needs in real-time. Digital-only and neobanks have already tackled this challenge successfully, and it's time for community FIs to leverage the right tech solutions to catch up.
Barry Adcock, Sales, Quantalytix
One of the key use cases for banks’ data management strategy will be to analyze and better understand their core deposit base. Capitalizing on the data on these customers to identify opportunities to grow wallet share with targeted marketing, empowering future AI models to predict depositor behavior as economic cycles evolve will allow for more strategic cost of funds management and net interest margin optimization.
Will Bryant, COO, Quantalytix
As banks benefit from the deregulatory intent of the new administration and the promise of AI in the medium-to-long run, having a robust, scalable, and encompassing data strategy and infrastructure will be critical to execution and informed decision making. Without a sounds Enterprise Data Management strategy, organizations will risk making uninformed strategic decisions that may not capture the potential opportunities ahead.
Beth McCoy, President, RewardOps
In 2025, financial institutions’ loyalty strategies will mature in three areas bringing customers’ perceived personal value to new levels. Firstly, personalization will make a comeback. Rewards within loyalty programs have grown overly transactional recently, but 2025 brings a shift toward tailored, trust-building experiences. Secondly, institutions will eliminate fragmented loyalty programs, prioritizing full-service providers to deliver a frictionless customer journey. Lastly, loyalty strategies will be shaped around consumers’ preferences and behaviors. Knowing that 73% of Americans prioritize reward-related factors can help institutions tailor their loyalty programs to better meet customers’ expectations, boost engagement, and improve satisfaction.
Dr. Siva Narendra, CEO, Tyfone
We believe that credit unions must evolve into true digital-first institutions that offer the convenience, immediacy and intelligence expected by modern consumers, particularly as real-time payments become the norm.
Barry Kirby, co-founder and CRO, Union Credit
Anticipated deregulation and the need to attract the next generation of consumers will drive innovation. Credit unions will focus on enhancing digital experiences and integrating embedded finance, seamlessly connecting financing options to shopping journeys on trusted platforms. These efforts will ensure credit unions remain relevant, accessible, and appealing to younger consumers while sustaining growth in a competitive, evolving financial landscape.
Brad Tompkins, CIO, Vergent
In 2025, we believe banks will continue to prioritize hyper-personalized customer experiences through advanced data analytics and AI. Automation will streamline workflows, improving efficiency in areas like deposit acquisition and customer onboarding. Cloud and edge computing adoption will grow, enabling scalable, secure, and faster operations.
Jon Tvrdik, CEO, WaveCX
In 2025, we anticipate a significant shift towards post-navigation user interfaces (UIs) that embrace command-line interfaces and generative search. This trend is driven by the need to eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional navigation systems, where users often have to click through multiple menus to find what they need. Instead, AI-powered engagement tools that combine intelligent search with contextual navigation will transform how financial institutions serve their customers.
These responses were originally published by Credit Union Business News and Bank Business News.