2025 will be the year financial institutions (FIs) diversify their deposit offerings. In fact, 54% of community bank executives cited their biggest challenge as growing deposits, while another 77% report that differentiating their bank will be their greatest opportunity this year. By turning their biggest challenge into their biggest opportunity and using deposits as a differentiator, FIs can carve out a space for themselves and make it the year of deposit innovation.
Family Banking: A Key to Growing Deposits
Family banking could be a great starting point. With big names like U.S. Bank and Bank of America rolling out new family deposit accounts, it’s clear these products offer real convenience and value for consumers, making them a smart option for driving deposit growth.But how can an FI act quickly to capitalize on this opportunity and seize competitive advantage? It starts with reimagining deposit account products to:
- Offer parental controls. Having parental involvement is key to any family product. Through thoughtful controls, parents can help guide their children toward making educated financial decisions, and at the same time, the FI can build a relationship with a new generation of client. As Javelin Strategy & Research puts it, “Debit products aimed at kids and teenagers are highly useful financial services: They allow parents to help their kids build strong financial habits and offer a pathway to deeper relationships between financial institutions and families.”
- Target families with reward-based and/or goal-based savings accounts.Data shows that parents of all generations are worried that their children will be financially dependent on them into adulthood. For their part, these children cite a desire to grow savings, but don’t have the means to do so: In fact, while 82% of Gen Z point to having financial goals, 57% report not having enough emergency savings to cover three months of expenses.These concerns create a new opportunity for FIs in the form of reward-based or goal-based savings accounts. Through targeted incentives, these accounts drive savings behavior, and the FI-provided rewards spark new, concrete reasons to act. What’s more, while these accounts may first be marketed to families, they also will interest other customer/member segments, deepening their potential for deposit growth.
- Enable real-time payment transfers.In today’s immediate gratification society, families will be seeking instant funds transfers. Whether it be to send emergency funds to a college student or an allowance payment that the child can see in real-time, instant payments solutions support today’s modern families. In short, customers/members are seeking out the instant funding of accounts, and FIs who are early adopters of instant and real-time payments are poised to capture new business through the offering.
Preparing to offer family banking deposits
Legacy core systems create significant challenges for financial institutions looking to launch innovative deposit products like family banking. Their rigid architecture, lack of real-time processing, and limited API integration make it difficult to introduce features like shared balances, tiered benefits, or seamless fintech partnerships. These limitations not only delay go-to-market timelines but also require costly workarounds that hinder scalability and fail to meet modern customer expectations.To address these challenges, many financial institutions are turning to parallel platforms with sidecar core capabilities for deposits and payments. These platforms are API-ready and designed to operate alongside existing cores, enabling banks to quickly design and launch next-gen products like family banking. By offering flexible, scalable infrastructure from a single platform, banks can deliver customer-centric experiences, grow deposits, and seamlessly integrate with fintech partners – all while future-proofing their operations in a fast-evolving market.While deposit growth is the goal for several financial institutions, without the right partner, financial institutions risk leaving untapped opportunities on the table and falling short of their full potential.To learn more about how Finzly’s sidecar core can help launch innovative products like family banking and goal-based savings, get in touch with one of our experts.
