Bank and Credit Card Digital Platforms Follow Best Practices to Deliver on Basics of Account Management but Struggle to Differentiate and Deliver Personalized Experience

TORONTO: It’s getting harder to tell the nation’s banks and credit card company mobile apps and websites apart from one another. According to a series of recent studies of bank and credit card mobile app and online users, released today by J.D. Power, the digital channels of Canada’s banks and credit card providers deliver remarkably similar user experiences, with the gap between best-performing and lowest-performing apps and websites shrinking to the lowest levels to date. The result is a predictable and consistent, but unmemorable digital experience from one brand to the next.

The studies—J.D. Power 2025 Canada Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study;SM 2025 Canada Online Banking Satisfaction Study;SM 2025 Canada Credit Card Mobile App Satisfaction Study;SM and 2025 Canada Online Credit Card Satisfaction StudySM—track overall customer satisfaction with banking and credit card providers’ digital offerings.

“Banks and credit card companies have reached an inflection point in their digital transformation journeys,” said Sean Gelles, senior director of banking and payments intelligence at J.D. Power. “They’ve spent years refining their apps and websites to deliver maximum functionality within the limits of their existing tech platforms. However, the world is evolving rapidly. As customers become more familiar with technologies like generative artificial intelligence and other advanced tools in their daily lives, financial institutions will need to raise the bar to keep pace with rising expectations.”

Following are some key findings of the 2025 studies:

• Overall satisfaction solid: When it comes to the foundational basics of the digital customer experience, such as seamless and speedy log-in, modern appearance and easy navigation, the majority of bank and credit card mobile apps and websites deliver a positive, if somewhat homogenous, customer experience. Overall satisfaction with Canada banking apps is 629 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is flat from 2024. Overall satisfaction with banking websites is up 17 points from 2024; overall satisfaction with credit card apps is up 22 points from 2024; and overall satisfaction with credit card websites is up 8 points from 2024.

• Multifactor authentication finds its groove: Once considered a cumbersome hindrance to the log-in process, multifactor authentication has now become a key driver of customer satisfaction. Among banking app users, overall customer satisfaction is 12 points higher when customers use multifactor authentication prior to logging in. This is likely the result of increased focus on security among customers and improvements in the authentication process, which have made it easier to log in using multifactor authentication.

• An opening for AI: Virtual assistant utilization remains flat in the 2025 studies. While virtual assistants are increasingly adopted by banks, many have fallen short of customer expectations due to limited conversational capabilities and narrow functionality. Although some banks and credit card companies are beginning to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and generative technologies, these assistants remain far less advanced than some state-of-the-art models with which customers are becoming increasingly accustomed.

“From a purely functional standpoint, bank and credit card mobile apps and websites are performing with exceptional speed, reliability and predictability,” said Jon Sundberg, director of digital solutions at J.D. Power. “This creates a satisfying overall user experience, but the bar is being raised for what constitutes a great digital interaction. As technology grows increasingly sophisticated and consumer-facing applications become better able to anticipate customer needs and deliver truly personalized, memorable experiences, satisfaction will increase. How well banks and credit card companies manage the transition to more AI-enabled solutions will really define the next phase of the digital customer experience.”

Study Rankings

CIBC ranks highest in banking mobile app satisfaction, with a score of 641. TD (631) ranks second.

CIBC ranks highest in online banking satisfaction with a score of 650. BMO (645) ranks second and RBC (632) ranks third.

American Express ranks highest in credit card mobile app satisfaction for a third consecutive year, with a score of 692. Tangerine Bank (669) ranks second and TD (640) ranks third.

Tangerine Bank ranks highest in online credit card satisfaction with a score of 655. PC Financial (642) ranks second and American Express (641) ranks third.

See the rank chart for each study at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2025059.

The Canada Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study; Canada Online Banking Satisfaction Study; Canada Credit Card Mobile App Satisfaction Study; and Canada Online Credit Card Satisfaction measure overall satisfaction with banking and credit card digital channels based on four factors: navigation; speed; visual appeal; and information/content. The studies are based on responses from 9,857 retail bank and credit card customers and were fielded from January through March 2025.

To learn more about these studies, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/resource/us-banking-and-us-credit-card-mobile-app-satisfaction-studies.

About J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services, and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behaviour, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 55 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.

J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business.

About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules: www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info

Fonte: Business Wire