I am concerned about the relevance and long-term health of community banking, both credit unions and local banks. I have seen two substantially sobering data points since my return to Raddon just over a year ago. One is that 71% of legal-age Gen Z consumers claim a big bank is their primary financial institution (Figure 1). The other is that 78% of 14-year-olds report using a large national bank or fintech app; only 19% state that they use a local bank or credit union (Figure 2).

This feels like community-institution relevance is declining. Based on that tragic trajectory, the problem is likely to get worse. It’s not just Gen Z and younger consumers: Over the last decade, all generations have shifted perception of primary status to larger institutions. 

Figure 1: % Considering a big bank to be primary financial institution

Big banks are winning the war for all generations. (“Big bank” is defined as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Truist, PNC, US Bank or Chase.)

Source: Raddon Research Insights, 2025

I was reading Marcus Rothaar’s wonderful Raddon Report from October 2, 2025 (From Teen to Lifelong Customer: Building Financial Relationships With Gen Z) and pondering this substantial strategic challenge of the loss of community banking relevance. Looking into the latest Raddon Research Insights publication on teen banking (Banking on the Future: Engaging Teens and Parents), I wondered whether community institutions could develop a customer journey for the youngest among us.

Financial marketers often use consumer journeys as part of their marketing strategies, and these journeys often start with teens going to college. I asked a client at a recent engagement what is the earliest age they would let a customer open a checking account. They said 14. However, 24% of teens say they opened their first account before the age of 14. So, that policy is not relevant for roughly a quarter of young people. From the parents’ perspective, 58% say they recall opening their child’s first account before the age of 14, though those are likely not all checking accounts.

So, if a financial marketer maps a consumer’s journey starting at college or their first job, this is demonstrably too late. This tendency to ignore the very young is likely a contributing factor for why younger consumers are not finding local institutions relevant. Now, I’m not the best cartographer when it comes to journey mapping; however, based on the teen and teen-parent research Raddon released in the third quarter of last year, I would like to propose a framework for financial institutions when they plan a minor’s journey.

First of all, it seems that knowing whether your existing customers have children is becoming table stakes for reclaiming relevance at the community institution level. Knowing the ages of their children is part of knowing whether they have children. We should be collecting this information at first-account opening. It is true that some parents will not be willing to provide this, but the fintechs and larger banks are somehow getting these data points. The community institutions must start somewhere on reclaiming relevance, and this seems as good a place as any.

Once we know the ages of these younger consumers, we need to be relevant to them. Understanding that the moment they get their phone they have access to financial services is important. Most young people report having a phone by age 11. Most parents of teens recall that it was by the age of 12. Thus, it seems that, even if we are marketing via the parents, the child is the target beginning at age 11 or 12. Raddon research provides an interesting journey map for these youngsters.

The point of journey mapping is to provide guidance to marketing decision makers on the right time to highlight the institution’s services in the consumer’s journey. Raddon data outlines at what ages teens typically start using various banking features. I picked 45% of teens using a service as the benchmark for when to start marketing to a given age cohort. Why 45%? It’s a sufficiently large percentage of the group. It also happens to make the journey make sense from a data perspective.

Interest in features appears to change as teens age and their need to interact with others changes. I propose a teen journey map (Table 1) that starts one year before the age at which at least 45% of teens report using the various features. Thus, by age 13, we should be highlighting the following to teens and their parents: debit cards, mobile banking, person-to-person payments and spending alerts. The percentages of 14-year-olds who report using these services are substantially higher than 45% (63%, 56%, 56%, 48%, respectively). So, really, the marketing should start at account opening – but definitely by age 13.

Table 2: Type of institution or app used for banking by teens 

Community institutions have less relevance for very young consumers

Source: Engaging Teens and Parents, Raddon Research Insights, 2024

I recently came across an institution that offered a checking account suite that boosted the interest rate by either debit card or credit card transactions. Their data supports an interesting progression in relationship development that typically occurs when our consumers have checking and a credit card with us.

Figure 3: Age and relevant features

Proposed journey map for marketing teen financial services

Source: Raddon Research Insights

At age 15, savings goals and budgeting features cross the 45% threshold; thus, we should establish the age of 14 as this outreach point in the journey. At 16-going-on-17, ATM usage crosses that 45% threshold. Therefore, we should be educating these consumers about our network, the role of surcharges and what the heck a foreign fee is. At age 17, the value and ease of our direct deposit services become relevant. Then, our normal journey mapping for the college-bound or career-bound consumer can begin.

Having many feature-specific opportunities for outreach feels like a sufficiently powerful journey map that may help community institutions begin to reclaim some of their declining relevance in the marketplace. Of course, engaging in marketing where minors are the ultimate target does involve some risk. I’m not an expert on the financial, regulatory or cultural risk for this kind of outreach, but I can say having parental permission or marketing via the parents is generally a safer thing to do.

We need to be conscious of the declining trend in community banking relevance. For now, it is only projected to get worse. The decisions we make when demonstrating our relevance to those who will achieve the age of majority in the next few years may help us decrease the percentage of young people selecting large banks or fintechs as their primary institutions.