Growth Strategies for CEOs: Deposits, Payments, and Automation

Executive Summary:

• You’re at a strategic inflection point. Short‑term deposit pressure is colliding with long‑term relevance as fintechs and neobanks win younger consumers, forcing you to rethink how growth, data, and experience work together.

• AI and payments are now table stakes, but strategy is the differentiator. Most institutions are investing in AI and launching new payment services, yet too few have a clear roadmap to turn those investments into insight, personalization, and competitive advantage.

• Those who win will connect the dots. By using payments as a data engine, aligning AI to real business outcomes, and delivering modern tools to SMBs, you can unlock durable deposits, deeper loyalty, and sustainable growth over the next two years.

Financial forecasting is a lot like checking the weather: it can provide future direction that offers assurance and preparedness. But it can also reveal massive, unexpected disasters when things don't quite pan out or when reality runs entirely contrary to planning or trends.

To help financial institutions separate the sunny forecasts from the impending storms, our 2026 Strategy Benchmark gathered feedback directly from bank and credit union CEOs to gauge their strategic priorities, tech spend plans, and concerns. The results highlight four critical areas of focus that will determine who scales, adapts, and survives over the next two years.

1. Gen Z and Gen Alpha Shape Deposit Growth

Deposit growth is the ultimate determinant of profitability and viability in today’s automated financial environment. However, banks and credit unions are approaching this challenge from two entirely different angles:

• Banks are hyper-focused on liquidity, with 64% of CEOs naming deposit growth as their paramount priority. It is also their greatest hurdle, with 42% reporting it as the most difficult strategic priority to achieve.

• Credit unions are playing the long game, with 40% prioritizing the acquisition of younger accountholders (Gen Z and Gen Alpha).

The generational shift is a defining theme of the study. Credit unions recognize the urgency: 41% already have a formal strategy to acquire younger accountholders, compared to 10% of banks.

Reality Check: Attracting younger accountholders is not a temporary marketing initiative; it’s a long-term franchise strategy. Fintechs and neobanks are currently winning this demographic, making them the biggest competitive threats to your financial institution. To sustain deposit bases and loan pipelines, activate your strategy to secure next-gen relevance now.

2. AI in Banking: From Experiments to Enterprise Strategy

Remember when AI was just a cool party trick or a tech-bro buzzword? Those days are over. Financial institutions are moving past the novelty phase and embracing AI as an essential pillar of their overall strategy.

In fact, plans to invest in AI increased by double digits year-over-year, claiming the number one spot on tech spend plans for the first time ever. The motivation here isn't just about cutting costs or replacing humans. It’s about survival in a hyper-competitive market defined by automation and extreme personalization. Financial institutions are realizing they need data to fuel this engine, which is why leveraging data climbed to the fifth most-important strategic priority this year, with one-third of financial institutions planning to embed data collection and analysis tools directly into digital banking.

Where is the AI going?

• AI Staff Assistants: The number-one use case, deployed to help employees deliver better accountholder service.

• Fraud Prevention: Protecting the financial institution and its users in real time.

• Lending and Underwriting: Tied for second place among credit unions looking to streamline risk.

3. Payment Modernization: Driving Data, Insight, and Growth

If you want to know where digital growth will come from over the next three to five years (especially with younger users), look no further than payments. Payments are no longer just a commodity service; they are the new foundation of banking. Because of this, an overwhelming 94% of banks and credit unions plan to launch new payment services within the next two years.

Top payment services to enable:

1. Digital card issuance
2. Instant payments via FedNow^® Service
3. Contactless cards

But here lies a big blind spot: Although the large majority plan to add payment services in the near term, only 34% of banks and 37% of credit unions have a formal payment strategy. Launching products without a roadmap is a risky game. Payment data provides the highest frequency, most "honest" view of consumer and business behavior. It tells you exactly what your users are doing in real time.

The Golden Rule: Those who don't control the payment lose the data. And without that data, you cannot possibly deliver the AI-driven personalization that younger, tech-savvy accountholders now demand.

4. SMB Banking Strategy: Driving Deposits and Loyalty

Small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) are the undisputed "crown jewels" of any financial institution's portfolio. Why? Because they hold cash balances four to five times larger than retail accounts just to cover basic payroll and taxes.

Better yet, these deposits are incredibly "sticky," making them far more durable and profitable than standard consumer relationships. Knowing this, 75% of CEOs plan to expand their services for SMBs over the next two years. And what do these businesses want most? You guessed it: modern payment tools.

For small businesses, mobile payment acceptance has officially shifted from a neat convenience to a core operational requirement. In 2026, offering these features does more than just let them "take a card" – it drives a direct lift in operational efficiency, security, and institutional loyalty.

When drilling down into the types of business payments offered, the demand for instant payments is clear, as the FedNow Service ranks number one overall followed by request for payment (FedNow or the RTP^® Network), then tap to pay.

When your financial institution serves small businesses well, you win a major triple threat:

1. A stable source of low-cost deposits
2. Higher margins on tailored loan products
3. Fierce accountholder loyalty as their businesses scale

From Strategy Silos to Connected Growth

These four focus areas – generational growth, AI maturity, payments advancement, and SMB services – are not standalone projects to be siloed in different departments. They are interconnected, enterprise-wide levers.

The financial institutions that win the next two years will be the ones that use modern payment data to fuel their AI engines, allowing them to deliver the personalized experience necessary to capture the next generation of consumer and business deposits.

Ready to take your strategic planning to the next level? Download our full 2026 Strategy Benchmark Study.