Distribution in financial services — the complex landscape of branches, call centers, digital apps, and embedded platforms through which providers serve their customers — is undergoing rapid and unprecedented change. Shifting consumer behaviors and emerging technologies are enabling new challengers to enter the market, and banks are being forced to rethink their legacy models.
To draw some preliminary conclusions on the trajectory of the industry as 2026 unfolds, we recently surveyed almost 5,000 retail banking customers across nine European countries. The findings reveal seven distribution trends shaping retail banking this year: the rise in AI-driven advice, the shift toward remote and hybrid advisory models, a redefined role for branches, renewed efforts to rebuild consumer trust, intensified competition for younger customers, the need to participate beyond proprietary infrastructure, and the growing integration of digital assets into everyday banking.
AI becomes a primary entry point for retail banking distribution
In 2026, banks may need to pivot to a reality where customer journeys increasingly originate in ChatGPT and other AI-driven interfaces, fundamentally reshaping how financial discovery, comparison, and decision making occur. Across Europe, 40% of customers are either currently taking or are likely to take financial advice from artificial intelligence in the future. An additional 38% are open to allowing AI agents to execute transactions on their behalf.
If they are not already doing so, banking leaders are likely to react to this trend by optimizing their value propositions for access via conversational search and defining how they integrate their propositions into AI-led decision making.
Interestingly, 33% of consumers are highly comfortable with digital assistants recommending better banking products, provided the customer retains the final decision-making power. As customers grow increasingly comfortable sourcing unregulated financial advice from non-bank agentic AI systems, traditional banks are likely to be driven to adapt their engagement models to remain relevant.
Remote and hybrid advice redefine how banks deliver human guidance
Relationship management is progressively moving away from traditional face-to-face interactions toward video-led and digital-first engagement models. Today, an overwhelming 82% of European customers cite a website or mobile app as their preferred distribution channel.
Simultaneously, clients are becoming highly comfortable holding personal financial discussions through secure platforms. According to our data, 78% of customers are open to engaging with remote advisory, whether as a hybrid mix or a complete replacement for branch visits. When asked about the benefits of remote advisory, 37% of customers highlighted quicker, more flexible access to advice, while 27% pointed to the extended hours of availability. By centralizing and digitally enabling relationship managers, banks can serve broader customer bases with richer, more personalized interactions.
Bank branches evolve from transactional sites to high value distribution hubs
While institutions will continue to rationalize physical footprints to drive down costs, others are experimenting with highly differentiated uses for branches, such as mass-affluent advisory hubs or brand experience centers.
The data reveals a striking paradox: While 62% of European customers report that they do not use branches at all, a staggering 85% still consider them either "very" or "somewhat" important.
Customers attach a strong emotional value to the presence of physical branches, viewing them as a vital safety net. When an issue arises, 37% of customers still prefer to use a branch to fix the problem, and 57% prefer in-person appointments for important journeys. Even when visiting, 20% do so simply to deposit or withdraw cash, and 13% explicitly want to speak to a human for advice. This ongoing preference creates a genuine dilemma for banking executives looking to cut real estate costs.
Trust and security become critical differentiators in digital banking
Trust is rapidly becoming an aggressive competitive differentiator, particularly concerning protection against scams, fraud, and identity theft. Digital-only challenger banks are highly competitive, with 48% of European consumers now holding a digital-only bank account. Moreover, 32% of customers report having closed or stopped using a bank account entirely due to dissatisfaction with the provider.
Despite this migration, traditional banks retain a critical advantage in perceived security. Currently, 32% of consumers view neobanks as less secure than branch-based banks. Fewer than 50% of surveyed customers believe digital banks are as secure or more secure than their legacy counterparts. Incumbents face the challenge of leveraging this structural trust advantage to reassure customers across digital touchpoints.
The battle for young banking customers reshapes future reach
To secure future market share, we expect banks to fundamentally rethink how they attract, onboard, and engage younger demographics. This cohort is digitally native, significantly less brand-loyal, and entirely comfortable managing multiple financial relationships simultaneously.
When analyzing why customers open neobank accounts, lower prices and fees (24%) and attractive day-to-day banking features (14%) are the primary drivers. Banks that succeed in 2026 will move beyond traditional product-led strategies. Routes to this include deploying gamified financial tools, creative digital onboarding journeys, and innovative partnerships that embed banking seamlessly into the everyday digital lives of younger consumers.
Banks move beyond proprietary channels to compete in open ecosystems
Banks that have historically prioritized their proprietary infrastructure face immense pressure to define clear strategies on how they will participate in the broader banking ecosystem, lest they lose visibility in fragmented customer journeys.
Embedded finance is a prime example. Across Europe, 48% of customers are open to using or have already used buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. Fortunately for incumbents, there is a strong consumer desire to access these services through familiar institutions. Our survey shows that 48% of customers prefer their BNPL service to be offered by their own bank, compared with a mere 5% who would prefer a third-party provider. Also, when considering embedded recommendations, 35% of consumers report they will do their own research but will still ultimately select a product from a provider they already know.
Digital assets enter the retail distribution landscape
Finally, 2026 is set to be a pivotal year for traditional retail banks to define their role in an expanding, increasingly decentralized financial ecosystem. We think banks need to rigorously evaluate the ways digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenized money can be integrated into mobile and online banking platforms.
Clear strategic choices regarding the prominence, positioning, and limits of digital wallets are becoming increasingly necessary, especially as non-bank competitors capitalize on traditional banks' regulatory wariness. While standard cryptocurrencies are often viewed as speculative, immediate retail use cases like central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and programmable money are gaining widespread attention. One example would be automating escrow in property transactions using CBDCs.
Banks face a stark choice: compete directly with digital wallet providers, partner with third-party platforms, or accept a gradual shift in consumer behavior toward alternative forms of value storage that they do not control.