End of year delight
Retaining your clients depends on product, place and personalised promotion.
Before we dive in, a quick personal note: I'm on the lookout for my next full-time marketing or communications leadership role at a Series B+ fintech or established financial services firm. If you know someone who needs help growing their business’ recognition, reputation or revenue, I’d love an introduction >
Now, read on to learn why:
① There is no delight in most financial firms’ client communications.
② Product, place and promotion are the most effective Ps for client retention.
③ Expectations for US bank stocks have not been this high for years.
④ Tomorrow’s digital finance infrastructure will likely be built by incumbents.
⑤ AI chatbots will soon be part of your advertising channels.
⑥ Listening and learning may be more powerful than commanding or inspiring.
⑦ The political independence of central banks must remain sacrosanct.
📸 But first, flashback to November 2024 when I told you it was time to move to Bluesky. This week - after X’s AI chatbot, at the request of the social network’s misogynist users, started creating photos of women and children in various states of undress - drowsy UK politicians (most of whom continue to use X) woke up and smelt some easy votes, the lumbering regulator “initiated an investigation”, and self-appointed ‘commentators’ dug deep, asking piercing questions like ‘Should your business should still be on X?’ As the week drew to a close, Bluesky rolled out cashtags and ‘Live’ pages to further increase its appeal, and X suffered another outage. Meanwhile, my advice hasn’t changed. I’m not a fan of bans, censorship or relying on governments to solve problems. We all have agency. The answer here is simple and crystal clear. If you’re using X (as an individual or representing a brand), stop. It’s ethically unconscionable and reputationally toxic.
What's new
New analysis from Built for Mars suggests that Monzo’s 1p Savings Challenge highlights a persistent retention gap, Finextra reports.
In short:
“The challenge asks customers to save incremental daily amounts over a year and with its simple behavioural hook, a predictable outcome, and a low barrier to entry, it has become popular.”
“However, as Built for Mars highlights, this type of long‑horizon financial habit suffers from a middle slump, the period where enthusiasm fades and progress feels abstract. While challenge opening days feel easy and the end of the year brings a tangible reward, the long, uneventful stretch in between, drives most user drop‑off.”
“The Built for Mars review ultimately highlights a broader trend across fintech: it is far easier to design engaging beginnings than resilient middles. Despite the frictionless onboarding and framing of Monzo’s challenge, the long stretch where user motivation naturally erodes remains underserved.”
Why it matters
While this article quickly gets drawn into the minutiae of UX design, let’s you and I rise above that because, although I’m sure Monzo could strengthen its retention still further by tweaking its UX implementation, I’m flagging this article because I think it highlights a great product feature. It’s simple yet smart, delivered seamlessly, and personalised just enough to delight its users.
I know this because I am a Monzo customer. This week when I opened the app, I found £667.95 stashed away in a pot I knew nothing about - as a result of me, this time last year, clicking ‘yes’ on an attractive app pop-up that felt like an idea from a friend rather than financial coaching, and then promptly forgetting all about it. Twelve months later I am - quite literally - delighted. The return of my own money feels like a gift from Monzo. And I’ll carry that affinity for the brand well into 2026, despite the fact that the bank didn’t pay me a penny of interest. My goodwill and loyalty cost them nothing.
① I can’t help but contrast that with how HSBC communicates with me. My dithering old bank insists on ugly, robotic sounding text messages instead of good-looking notifications from their app that I could have more granular control over. Even in 2026, it occasionally still sends me letters in the post that should be emails. And the emails it does send are often just messages informing me that there is another message waiting for me in the app. When I finally locate said message, it’s a PDF that doesn’t scale to my phone’s screen. Not once have any of these messages felt like they were written by a human being with any thought about what would specifically benefit me. There is no delight in their dialogue.
What to do about it
Take action
② This week, think about how to delight your clients as you audit three P’s of your marketing mix:
Product: What features could you add that would make your clients smile? These don’t have to cost money or be complex, indeed often the simplest ‘quality of life’ improvements work best. I’m reminded of how Twitter’s first prompt was ‘What are you doing?’ Users became far more engaged when they changed it to ‘What’s happening?’
Place: Meet your clients where they already are. They likely don’t want to be dragged away from what they’re already doing. If you have an app they use regularly then this is almost certainly a better channel than intrusive text messages or emails. If you don’t, a well crafted email that feels valuable and tailored beats a phone call that will interrupt them or a PDF they have to download.
Promotion: Communicate with humanity and personalisation, putting your clients first. Think of Mondo’s Savings Challenge and how it could surface contextual performance (“You’ve saved 5x more than last year”); benchmark progress (“Most people stop before this point”); or highlight short‑term, achievable milestones (“Only four days until you hit £200”).
Get help
Two ways I can help you:
Tackle a specific challenge by retaining me in an advisory capacity or on a fractional basis.
Elevate all your marketing and communications by hiring me as a full-time member of your team.
Top stories
The other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Wall Street headed for best investment banking year since pandemic
③ Expectations for US bank stocks have not been this high for years.
“US banks are on course to report their best year for investment banking since the pandemic, with investors betting it is the start of a prolonged rebound after years of moribund performance.”
“The performance would lift the lenders’ total investment banking revenues for 2025 to almost $38bn, up 50 per cent from the low point in 2023 when the banks reported just $25bn of revenues and their highest total since 2021.”
“Optimism that the industry is at the early stages of a dealmaking supercycle has boosted bank stocks, helped by demand for AI assets, a constructive US regulatory environment and pent-up private equity activity.”
TECHNOLOGY
Swift to build shared ledger for tokenised asset transactions
④ Tomorrow’s digital finance infrastructure will likely be built by incumbents.
“Bank-to-bank messaging network Swift is to add a blockchain-based shared ledger to its infrastructure having successfully completed digital asset interoperability trials in collaboration with BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo and Societe Generale – Forge.”
“The trial enabled the exchange and settlement of tokenised bonds, while supporting payments in both fiat and digital currencies.”
“The ledger will initially focus on enabling real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments, designed in collaboration with over 30 banks worldwide.””
See also: LSEG launches 24/7 settlement platform for tokenised deposits
MEDIA & MARKETING
ChatGPT users are about to get hit with targeted ads
⑤ AI chatbots will soon be part of your advertising channels.
“In a blog post published Friday, OpenAI said that it will begin testing ads in the U.S. for both its free and Go tiers. The company frames this as a way to sustain free access while generating revenue from people who aren’t ready to commit to a paid subscription. For the time being, the company’s more expensive paid tiers — Pro, Plus, Business, and Enterprise — will not be getting any ads.”
“The ads will appear at the bottom of a user’s conversation and will be targeted to the topic of discussion. Users will have some control over this situation, as they’ll be able to dismiss ads, see explanations for why they’re being shown particular ones, and also turn off personalisation, which should defeat the ads’ targeted nature. The company has also made a commitment not to serve ads to users it believes are under the age of 18.”
“OpenAI says that ChatGPT will maintain ‘answer independence,’ meaning that, despite the incorporation of advertising, those ads will not influence the answers that the chatbot serves to users. The company has also promised not to sell users’ data to advertisers.”
WILDCARD
The best leaders are great followers
⑥ Listening and learning may be more powerful than commanding or inspiring.
“In an era of complexity, specialisation, and rapid change, the most effective leaders are those who exhibit the same attributes as exemplary followers.”
“They excel at listening, learning, and adapting rather than commanding from the top. Leadership and followership are co-created, fluid roles, not heroic acts of command.”
“Organisations can develop stronger leaders by cultivating five followership capabilities: active listening, prioritising purpose over personal credit, reliable execution, critical dissent, and coachability. These skills mobilise collective intelligence, reduce blind spots, build trust, and make others genuinely want to follow.”
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
🇨🇭 UBS scouting for new top boss with Sergio Ermotti to exit next year
💳 Wall Street hits back at Trump’s plan to limit interest on credit cards
💰 Raymond James to acquire $46B asset manager Clark Capital
🧑🏼⚖️ Revolut, Visa and Mastercard lose UK legal challenge over fee cap
✂️ BlackRock plans to slash 1% of globally staff as it prioritises ‘improving’
TECHNOLOGY
🏦 Big banks talk about digital assets a lot, use them a little
🪙 Payments Association calls for BoE to stop stifling stablecoin progress
🕵🏻 LSEG launches market surveillance tool
👶🏻 BNY takes first steps in strategy to tokenise bank deposits
🦾 Apple teams up with Google for AI in its products
MEDIA & MARKETING
📲 Lloyds launches new brand platform as it shifts to social and digital
📰 Why B2B marketers need to be using financial media networks
🧰 Generative engine optimisation tools that marketing teams actually use
✍🏻 Companies aren’t looking for storytellers. They’re looking for meaning.
🔻 Dentsu shares slump 11% as buyers walk away from sale of international unit
The last word
⑦ Central bankers in support of the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell after the thug President of the United States tried to insult, threaten and intimidate Powell into doing his bidding:
“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability.”
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Wishing you an innovative week,
P.S. They say one of the secrets to happiness is to always have your next two holidays booked. Have you got summer sorted yet? If not, may I suggest…
