There is a genuinely encouraging statistic about Gen Z that rarely makes headlines. Roughly 80% of Gen Z still hold their primary account with a traditional bank or credit union, even as they experiment with fintech apps, neobanks, and digital wallets. They have not all closed their accounts in a mass exodus, they just may look invisible to your institution.
About 60% of Gen Z consumers spread their financial lives across multiple providers, holding accounts with an average of two banks and two neobanks or fintechs. One in five say they are likely to change their primary institution within the next six months, and one-third of Gen Z and Millennial consumers switched primary providers in the past year looking for better value.
That is the Gen Z version of what SavvyMoney’s CEO, JB Orecchia, recently described as the leaky bucket problem: consumers are not walking out the door, they are staying put and quietly taking their most valuable financial decisions somewhere else. For community banks and credit unions, that is far better news than an exodus. Gen Z primacy is not lost, it is unclaimed, and a relationship you already have is a relationship you can deepen.
Primacy Is Not the Account. It Is the Next Question.
For this generation, the primary institution is the app they open when they have a money question. That is a higher bar than a direct deposit and a debit card, and it is a bar you can actually clear.
Gen Z has no shortage of questions. According to a SavvyMoney survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, only 14% of Gen Zers feel confident in their financial knowledge. Twenty percent cite a lack of knowledge about how to reach their financial goals as their single biggest obstacle, the highest of any generation and more than triple the 6% of Boomers who say the same. And 34% say the biggest challenge with their financial institution is a lack of financial advice.
Read those numbers together and the picture is clear. Gen Z is not disengaged, they are underinformed. Every unanswered question is a moment where a fintech, a neobank or a creator on social media earns a piece of the relationship instead of you.
Relevance Is the Price of Admission
Sixty-seven percent of Gen Z want personalized financial recommendations tailored to their actual credit profile, financial situation and life stage. This is a generation that grew up with algorithms predicting what they want to watch next, and they bring that expectation to their bank or credit union. Generic messaging does not move them, but guidance that reflects their situation does.
Credit is the natural front door, because it is the topic they are already thinking about. Fifty-eight percent want real-time credit score monitoring, just as many want to understand how credit scores actually work and 42% want credit-building help from their institution. Most Gen Zers know a good score matters for the apartment, the car and eventually the mortgage. Far fewer know how to get there.
SavvyMoney Credit Score & Financial Wellness puts that answer inside digital banking: a real-time score, monitoring alerts, the factors shaping it and education that explains what to do next. When your app is where Gen Z goes to understand their credit, your institution becomes the trusted voice on the subject they care most about. That is where primacy begins to build.
Friction Is Where Primacy Leaks
Relevance earns attention, but friction decides whether that attention turns into a funded loan or a new deposit account.
FICO’s Bank Customer Experience Survey found that 47% of consumers would switch their primary institution for better value and 34% for a better customer experience. In practice, that means a better rate, a higher yield or an application that takes two minutes instead of 12. For consumers raised on one-tap checkout, a redirect to a separate portal or a form asking for information you already have is a real reason to look elsewhere. Every handoff is a chance to lose them.
SavvyMoney Account Opening is built to remove those handoffs. Deposit and loan onboarding happen inside the digital banking experience the consumer is already using. No redirect to a different site, no re-entering information, no starting over. The consumer stays with you from interest to funded, which is exactly where you want them.
Offers Work When the Timing Is Right
Relevance and low friction come together in the offer itself. A pre-qualified offer that shows up next to the credit insights a consumer is already reviewing.
That is the role SavvyMoney Offers Engine plays. Personalized, pre-qualified offers surface inside the experience your consumers already check, then flow directly into an application. A 25-year-old watching their score climb sees the rate they qualify for at the moment they are thinking about the car, not three weeks after they financed it at the dealership.
The results follow the relevance. One credit union reached 91% adoption and grew average monthly loan volume by 67% using a targeted, data-driven approach rather than broad outreach. That lift did not come from a bigger marketing budget. It came from reaching the right people at the right moment.
What It Looks Like in a Real Portfolio
Liberty Bank, a $7.4 billion institution with 138,773 digital banking users, set out to build stronger relationships with its Gen Z and Millennial consumers. It launched SavvyMoney in February 2023 with real-time credit score access, personalized credit education, a score simulator, a mobile-first design and integrated offers.
Twelve months in, Gen Z and Millennials accounted for 39% of active users. Half of Gen Z users became Credit Savvy within the first year. Gen Z users averaged a 51-point credit score increase, and those who started below 650 averaged a 349-point increase.
“The combination of personalized financial tools and insights has not only empowered these young adults but also strengthened their loyalty to Liberty Bank,” said Lizette Nigro, SVP of Digital Engagement at Liberty Bank.
A consumer whose score improves inside your app qualifies for better rates on your products, and they know exactly who helped them get there.
Why Gen Z Primacy Compounds When You Win It Early.
Gen Z is forming primary relationships right now. Roughly four million new bank accounts are opened by Gen Z each year through 2026, and this generation stands to benefit from an $85 trillion intergenerational wealth transfer over the next two decades. The institution that answers a 24-year-old’s credit question is positioned for the auto loan at 27, the mortgage at 32 and every decision after that.
Community banks and credit unions already hold the advantage Gen Z says it wants: trust, transparency and a real stake in the community. The gap has never been about intent. It has been about delivering that value through a digital experience that holds up next to the apps they use all day.
The Takeaway
Primacy with Gen Z is not won with a campaign. It is won in the small moments, when they check their score, when they wonder whether they qualify, when they decide where to apply. Answer those moments well and consistently, and you stop being one of four apps on their phone. You become their financial home.
Want to go deeper on this segment? Read Winning the Next Generation: How Financial Institutions Can Grow Their Gen Z Segment.
