SPONSORED CONTENT PRESENTED BY ALKAMI TECHNOLOGY
Research shows that 88% of the most digitally mature financial institutions have deployed or started to deploy modern data solutions within their organization. Sixty-seven percent of this cohort of financial institutions can automatically push targeted marketing to their account holders and more impressively, 23% of the most digitally mature institutions can automatically intercept a key moment of a consumer’s digital experience with a marketing tactic.
Being a data-driven financial institution is the strategic approach to stretch the competitive advantage over your competitors. The real leaders are turning that data into intelligence, making personalization proactive, and are achieving the highest levels of profitability.
For many financial institutions, a significant gap persists between accessing the data already inside the institution and the ability to make it actionable. As our industry shifts from reactive banking toward Anticipatory Banking — where financial institutions predict and meet account holders’ needs before they’re communicated — the use of integrated technology and data insights to guide outcomes will be more important than ever.
How to move from passive to predictive engagement
Anticipating an account holder’s financial needs before they are expressed moves financial institutions from passive reactive service to predictive engagement and proactive growth. Financial services data analytics now serves as a critical driver for financial institutions wanting to make this move. The data is already within reach, but what makes the difference is whether the institution can turn that information into measurable business value. The Digital Sales & Service Maturity Model 2025 Update shows the most digitally mature segment (Data-First) reported annual average revenue growth up to five times higher than their peers (up from two times higher in the 2024 Report). Forty-five percent of Data-First institutions say their data and marketing capabilities are at least a little more advanced than their peers and they are betting on advanced data and marketing capabilities to deliver a competitive advantage. But it has to start with the foundational data.
Financial institutions can refine, enrich and categorize raw transaction data into behavioral data tags that reveal intent; this data is one of the most overlooked sources of growth across financial institutions. It already reflects behavioral patterns of account holders that tell their financial story and once organized, that data can highlight external relationships, life changes and shifts in engagement. In a recent webinar, Turning Chaos into Clarity: Decoding the Language of Transactions, financial institutions discussed when transaction data is translated into meaningful signals, institutions can respond faster, personalize outreach more effectively and strengthen account holder relationships over time.
This intelligence empowers the data-informed digital banker, a leader within the bank or credit union, to make every engagement with account holders relevant, predicting what’s next. The data is what fuels Anticipatory Banking; a forward-thinking strategic vision financial institutions can use as a guiding principle to act with forethought, making prediction an actionable business strategy, and experience with their FI personal for the account holder.
What are the specific growth plays that financial institutions can execute with cleansed, tagged transaction data?
Once transaction data is cleansed and organized into behavioral data tags, financial institutions can identify cross-sell opportunities, encourage stronger product usage and spot early retention risks. That creates a path for timely, relevant marketing that grows relationships, supports deposit retention and improves product adoption.
Financial institutions can scale data analytics in banking using always-on campaigns that refresh automatically as data changes. That helps the right account holders receive timely messages without ongoing manual effort. The result is clearer measurement across priorities such as deposit growth, product adoption, engagement, retention and operational efficiency.
Transaction insights can also shape strategy beyond campaign execution. If account holders are consistently moving funds to external savings apps, for example, that signal can influence roadmap decisions, promotional priorities, and future investment. In that way, data supports both near-term action and longer-term direction. Once transaction data is cleansed and organized into behavioral data tags, financial institutions can identify cross-sell opportunities, encourage stronger product usage, and spot early retention risks. That creates a path for timely, relevant marketing that grows relationships, supports deposit retention, and improves product adoption.
Below are a few strategies that financial institutions should consider:
- Curate Competitive Insights – the intel from money moving out of the financial institution to competitors brings opportunities for relevant messaging to increase account holder share of wallet
- Execute Cross-sell Campaigns – transaction activity can reveal where account holders already have financial relationships outside your institution, whether that includes credit cards, auto loans, insurance, or investment accounts. That visibility gives your team a better chance to respond with offers that fit the moment.
- Predictive Artificial Intelligence Analytics – the power of previous transactions can identify patterns to help bankers predict behaviors.
- Engagement and Retention – data can surface early changes in money movement to identify potential churn, giving financial institutions the opportunity to engage timely and relevantly.
According to the 2025 Generational Trends in Digital Banking Study, 60% of digital banking Americans say it’s important for their data to be used to make relevant product recommendations (e.g., the perfect card, loan or investment account). When completely satisfied with how their data is used to make relevant product recommendations, they are more likely to be loyal to the provider (42%), more likely to recommend the provider to family and friends (42%) and more likely to engage in other digital banking products, tools or features from the provider (38%).
Leading with Data as a Growth Engine
The financial institutions that lead in both digital maturity and account holder experience will be the ones that strategically embed data in operations and marketing and use it as a growth engine. Financial institutions already have access to a powerful source of insight in their transaction data. The differentiator is whether they can translate that data into action across marketing, service and strategy. As expectations rise and competition intensifies, financial institutions that move from reacting to anticipating will be better positioned to grow deposits, expand share of wallet, engage account holders with greater precision and earn deeper trust over time.
