Banks Give Customers Online Controls for Privacy & Marketing Preferences, Streamline Account Opening and Renew Omnichannel Banking Focus

Bank of America and U.S. Bank Tie for the Top Spot in Keynova Group's Q2 2026 Online Banker Scorecard

WILMINGTON, Del., May 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, today announced the results of its semi-annual Online Banker Scorecard for Q2 2026. U.S. Bank ties the long-standing leader, Bank of America, for first place in Keynova Group's competitive evaluation of the 17 leading U.S. retail banks' digital experience.

"As concerns around account security protections continue, banks have an important opportunity to strengthen customer trust through transparent privacy practices and greater control over marketing communications and data-sharing preferences," said Susan Foulds, managing director of Keynova Group. "At the same time, the widespread acceleration of AI is cultivating expectations for seamless banking experiences and rejuvenating omnichannel banking as an imperative to reduce friction between branch, call center and digital outlets, especially for opening accounts and services."

Key Findings:

Privacy and Marketing Opt-In Controls Engender Consumer Trust
With the rise in cybercrime and fraud, transparent digital privacy policies and marketing preference options can help strengthen trust and brand loyalty with customers concerned about sharing sensitive personal information. Yet only 50% of Scorecard banks provide options to set privacy preferences in the authenticated online banking area. Self-selection options for marketing preferences are emerging with 30% of banks now empowering customers to specify the type and frequency of brand communications they want to receive. While all banks assessed provide a link to their privacy policy when requesting personally identifiable information in an online checking account application, just 40% provide a full explanation about use of the applicant's email address. Alternatively, nearly two-thirds clearly explain how a requested phone number will be used.

Online Access to Application Support Mitigates Abandonment
For customers and prospects who want to open a new checking account, providing live assistance and detailed guidance on the application process, account funding and enrollment is essential to reducing friction and abandonment. Three-quarters of banks evaluated offer a step-by-step progress indicator in the open checking account flow to increase successful submission and enrollment rates. Live help is becoming more common in checking applications and is now offered by more than half of banks, while only one-third offer live chat for selecting deposit accounts and CDs prior to the application. For phone assistance, most banks provide critical contact information specifically for new customers in the application, and available support hours are displayed by 70% of banks within two clicks of the homepage.

Omnichannel Customer Support is Essential
While banks' disparate back-end systems have limited the availability of unified and consistent cross-channel digital, phone and branch banking support, omnichannel access across digital platforms is expanding. Today, 41% of Scorecard banks offer omnichannel messaging for authenticated customer support, including some that offer asynchronous two-way messaging that maintains messaging threads accessible later or from a different device. Similarly, cross-channel new account flows are becoming more common with half of banks allowing checking applicants to start an application online and complete it from a different device using credentials or alternative access references.

About the Online Banker Scorecard
Keynova Group's semi-annual, fact-based Online Banker Scorecard, offered for more than two decades, evaluates digital user capabilities, customer experience elements and best practices to identify evolving trends and insights that drive online banking strategy. The evaluation encompasses the websites of Bank of America, BMO, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Huntington Bank, KeyBank, M&T Bank, PNC, Regions Bank, TD Bank, Truist, USAA, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. A separate semi-annual Mobile Banker Scorecard reviews the mobile app and mobile web experience. For more information please visit: https://www.keynovagroup.com/scorecards/#banking

About Keynova Group
Keynova Group is the nation's foremost competitive intelligence firm providing trusted benchmarking insights and analysis of consumer and small business digital financial services, including banking, credit card, home lending and insurance. Since 1999, Keynova Group's Scorecards have served as the go-to source for leading financial services firms to obtain reliable competitive intelligence and actionable insights. The firm's proven methodology and highly detailed results help its clients maximize the value of their digital channels to deliver a premier experience to customers and prospects.

SOURCE Keynova Group