Connect with the author: olivia.hamel@curinos.com
As comfort with digital and remote delivery increases, so does the preference to open accounts digitally—with the share of new accounts originated digitally up 11 percentage points (40%) in only two years (chart below). But rather than driving increased acquisition volume for banks, the digital channel has replaced branch originations—at a lower quality.
Branch vs. Digital Relationship Acquisition
Performance Indexed to 2023
Source: Curinos Digital Benchmarking
After 12 months, a scant 41% of digitally acquired relationships remain on the books, compared with three out of four for those sourced at the branch. And digital customers bring in far fewer balances. After two years, digitally acquired accounts display only 35% of balances initiated in branches (chart below). Cracking the code for driving quality from digitally originated customers will be necessary to sustain customer value.
Avg. Relationship Balance Over Time | Acquired in 2023Q4 – 2025Q3
Source: Curinos Digital Benchmarking
Enter decision intelligence. When properly applied, it’s been shown to identify prospects that are 1.5x – 2x more likely to initiate a new product, to improve trailing 6-month retention by 5% and increase total deposits by 2.5%. For a $50 billion bank, that deposit lift means an additional $1.25 billion in balances—real money when profitable growth is as stubborn as it is these days, whatever the origination channel.
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