Your dashboard says you are their primary bank. You may only be their vault.

More than half of the new checking accounts opened today are additional accounts. The direct deposit lands with you. The relationship lives somewhere else.

Primacy no longer begins with the transaction. It begins earlier, at the moment a customer asks their first financial question. Last year, 10% of Americans took that question to an AI. This year it is 55%, and 77% among Gen Z. Those conversations are not happening with their bank, even though consumers still trust their financial institution far more than they trust an AI with their money.

Jim Marous covers the four questions customers are already asking, and how banks and credit unions can answer them first: instant access to cash with no application and no credit bureau, a payday message that says what is safe to spend, subscription alerts with a one-tap cancel, and an open-ended question bar with a human at the bottom of every answer.

Featuring Huntington, Regions, Bank of America and Erica, Fifth Third, and the implementation gap that keeps good ideas from ever reaching a customer.