What makes users come back? The anatomy of a financial app that sticks

Consumer banking apps are the new face of the financial industry. In the year ending June 2025, consumers downloaded banking apps more than 2 billion times¹, and that number keeps climbing. But here’s the catch: despite the surge in downloads, 74% of customers² describe their digital banking experience as forgettable, or worse, disappointing.

So why the disconnect?

Some argue that financial services will always be background utilities – that banks shouldn’t waste energy trying to build “sticky” apps when payments, balances, and transfers are all that matter. But reality shows otherwise. A select few banks and fintechs have cracked the code, creating apps so useful and intuitive that they transform customer relationships. These institutions don’t just build apps, they build loyalty, advocacy, and entirely new revenue streams.

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What sets the best apps apart?

The secret is simple to say but hard to deliver: consistent, relevant, and timely value.

The leading financial institutions have mastered the art of staying present in their customers’ daily financial lives. Their apps aren’t checked once a month for a statement; they’re opened multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. These apps drive transactions, spark engagement, and even turn customers into brand ambassadors.

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The pillars of a truly engaging app

To achieve that, an app must be:

• Instant: Actions happen the moment a customer needs them.
• Context-aware: It understands the “why” behind an action, not just the “what.”
• Proactive: It anticipates needs before customers articulate them.
• Friction-free: It reduces steps, clicks, and confusion at every turn.
  

These principles certainly apply to core actions like payments and transfers. But the real magic happens when banks extend them to insights, guidance, and personalized suggestions – areas where customers often struggle on their own.

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Turning signals into value

The best apps don’t just display data, they interpret it in real time. For example:

• Real-time alerts: Instantly notifying you when your salary lands, or when a subscription fails because your balance is too low.
• Smart nudges: Highlighting that you’ve already blown past this month’s coffee budget as you tap to pay for another latte.
• Proactive forecasting: Projecting how your cash flow will evolve over the next few weeks if your spending stays on the same trajectory.
• Actionable guidance: Suggesting a one-tap transfer into savings when surplus cash is just sitting in your account.
  

Each of these interactions builds trust, delivers value, and nudges the customer toward healthier financial behavior, all while deepening engagement with the app.

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Why personalization is non-negotiable

Of course, these experiences only resonate if they’re personalized. A generic notification or blanket recommendation is more noise than value. To truly stand out, banks must translate raw data into personal relevance.

That requires an exceptional understanding of the customer, powered by the most important dataset banks already own: Financial transactions. Transaction data is the richest signal of intent, habit, and need, and when processed intelligently, it unlocks the ability to serve each customer in a way that feels both individual and indispensable.

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¹ https://sensortower.com/blog/consumer-banking-apps-and-advertising-trends-2025

² Capgemini World Retail Banking Report 2025