Why have 68 million US consumers opened a FinTech bank account?

FinTechs have quickly become an integral part of the US banking ecosystem. 68 million consumers nationwide use FinTechs like Chime, Sofi and Ally, and 30 million consumers use such FinTechs as their primary financial institution (FI) instead of traditional banks – and the number is growing stronger every year.

Which consumers are signing up with FinTechs? What is driving them away from traditional banks and credit unions, and what can they teach FinTechs about attracting new customers?

in “Fintech’s role“, a collaboration with Ingo money, PYMNTS goes into the field to learn more about the role FinTechs play in consumers’ everyday lives. We surveyed a census-balanced panel of 3,633 consumers about whether they used FinTechs, the services they used from these banks, and what they expect and demand from them.

Key findings from our research include:

• FinTechs are most popular among bridge millennials, low-income consumers, and paycheck-to-paycheck consumers struggling to pay their bills. Bridge millennials – the group of consumers including younger members of Generation X and older millennials – are the most likely of all these demographic groups to use FinTechs, with 48% of them doing so.

• On average, consumers who use FinTechs as their primary FI use almost twice as many services as those who use them as secondary FIs – and Chime customers use the most services of all. Consumers using FinTechs as primary FIs use these banks for 3.7 services, while those using them as secondary FIs use these banks for 2.3 services.

• Many consumers use FinTechs specifically to avoid paying fees to send or receive instant payments. Only 16% of consumers who use FinTechs as secondary FIs say they are very or extremely willing to pay extra for instant payouts, making them far less likely than other FinTech customers to do so.

These are just a few of the industry trends reshaping the banking ecosystem in the US “The Role Of FinTechs” provides practical insight on how FinTechs can learn from these trends and encourage more traditional banking customers to switch.

To learn more about how FinTechs can tailor their services to meet the rapidly changing demands of banking customers, download the report.