Beating the Attention Economy in Financial Services: A New Model for Digital Banking Engagement

Q2 occasionally shares our blog space with fintech partners to highlight their perspectives, spotlight joint innovation, and provide a closer look at how collaboration across the ecosystem is shaping the future of digital financial services.

Across the financial services landscape, banks and credit unions are navigating a familiar tension: Account holders expect more from their digital banking experience while traditional revenue leaders continue to face pressure. Beneath both challenges sits a deeper issue. Financial institutions (FIs) are being pulled into an attention economy they were never designed to win.

In an environment where account holders manage their financial lives across a growing patchwork of fintech apps, marketplaces, and point solutions, attention is fragmented by default. Every time an account holder leaves the banking app to check a credit score, monitor identity risk, or explore loan options elsewhere, the institution loses engagement and relevance.

Recent industry research reinforces this tension. According to the 2026 Retail Banking Trends and Priorities report, financial institutions widely acknowledge the importance of digital experience with 57% listing it as their first priority, yet many continue to struggle with execution as investment and attention remains divided across competing priorities.

In our conversations with financial institutions, two “engagement” priorities consistently rise to the top: keeping account holders engaged inside their own digital platforms and creating new revenue streams that complement core banking products without compromising trust. Increasingly, these priorities are inseparable. Both are shaped by the same reality. Attention cannot be demanded; it has to be earned.

The engagement challenge: keeping account holders “in-platform”

Today’s account holders rarely think of their financial lives as belonging to one institution. Credit scores, budgeting tools, identity protection, and loan shopping are spread across a fragmented ecosystem of providers, each competing for mindshare. For financial institutions, this fragmentation comes at a cost. When account holders manage their financial health elsewhere, engagement erodes quietly, relationships weaken, and attrition grows.

As a result, many institutions are rethinking how to craft meaningful digital engagement. The goal is no longer to drive more clicks, notifications, or campaigns; that’s a losing game. It is to make the banking experience useful between traditional moments like transactions, statements, or loan applications.

Tools that encourage repeat visits on a monthly or even weekly basis help shift digital banking from a utility to a habit. Credit awareness, timely financial insights, and alerts tied to real consumer needs are increasingly viewed as table stakes. When delivered inside the banking experience, these tools reduce the need for account holders to seek value elsewhere and help anchor engagement to the institution’s own platform. 

This is why capabilities like credit monitoring and insights are becoming central to digital engagement strategies. When account holders can access information they already value without leaving the banking app, financial institutions can reclaim relevance in moments that matter.

The revenue challenge: beyond interest and fees

At the same time, financial institutions are under pressure to diversify revenue. Overdraft fees, interchange, and traditional lending margins alone are no longer sufficient growth engines, and on top of that, these income sources can be erosional to relationships. Furthermore, competition from fintechs has reshaped consumer expectations around what “value” looks like in a financial relationship.

Rather than relying on aggressive cross-sell tactics, many institutions are exploring revenue models that align more closely with consumer needs. Optional premium tools that consumers already pay for elsewhere, including identity protection, privacy tools, and subscription management, are gaining traction when they are offered transparently and embedded within digital banking. Account holders already trust their financial institution; the next step is providing the services they need. 

For financial institutions, the appeal is generating revenue while giving account holders control over which tools they choose to adopt. When account holders opt into services that feel helpful, monetization reinforces trust instead of undermining it. Revenue becomes a byproduct of relevance, not pressure.

This thinking has driven interest in modular solutions like Array+, a Q2 partner solution that gives account holders access to platform features, enabling the financial institution to decide which features are free and which are premium. That way, when account holders upgrade to unlock premium tools, the FI shares in the revenue. The value for institutions is not just monetization; it is flexibility. Tools offered broadly to drive engagement, positioned as premium where appropriate, and aligned to the FI’s broader digital strategy without conforming to a one-size-fits-all model will win in the long run.

A shift in mindset

What’s changing is not how financial institutions think about engagement or revenue independently but how they view the role of attention altogether. In a landscape defined by fragmented experiences and rising expectations, winning does not mean competing louder for attention. It means earning repeat visits through sustained usefulness.

Deeper engagement creates the conditions for consumer-aligned revenue, while well-designed premium tools reinforce loyalty rather than erode trust. This is not about adding more features or copying fintech playbooks. It is about designing digital banking experiences that account holders actively choose and enjoy.

The broader takeaway is less about any single product and more about strategy. Financial institutions that succeed in the next phase of digital banking will be those that stop competing inside the attention economy and instead build experiences that feel indispensable within it. 

By meeting account holders inside the banking experience with tools that are genuinely helpful across the financial journey, FIs can turn attention from a scarce resource into a durable advantage.