The checking account's old job was facilitating transactions. Its new job is making the relationship smarter.
For decades, banks and credit unions controlled the customer relationship because deposits, payments, lending and treasury management all flowed through the checking account. Today, fintech providers have captured much of the day-to-day work that businesses depend on, including payment processing, expense management, accounts payable, invoicing and cash-flow management. Meanwhile, the checking account increasingly serves as the place where financial activity settles after the work has already happened somewhere else.
Based on a survey of 1,011 U.S. business owners and executives, this new Cornerstone Advisors research, commissioned by Fiserv, explains how fintechs won the workflow battle, why banks remain well positioned to win back engagement, and what financial institutions must do to make the business checking account relevant again.
