When the first challengers hit the market in the early 2010s, they instantly outclassed incumbents.

Where most incumbents' digital portals were clunky and had limited capabilities, the likes of Chime and SoFi had slick, user-friendly apps that upended expectations. Suddenly, you could open an account in minutes, and perform any banking task you could think of, without leaving your phone.

 
Since then, the digital gap has narrowed. But who is winning the war? Do challengers still have the advantage, or are there things incumbents do better?


To answer these questions, we dove into FinTech Insights' data on the US banking market as at March 2024.