US Bank has hand-picked a dozen millennials to help guide its middle-aged suits over the next year on what digital natives want from their financial services provider.
Since 2009, each member of US Bancorp’s managing committee has selected millennials to represent their respective business line in a year-long programme to gain insight into how they can attract young people as customers and employees. Members of the 'Dynamic Dozen' take part in panels for input on company products and initiatives, professional development activities and a collective capstone project.
The bank says that over the last few years the millennials have helped develop it mobile services, career development programmes, intranet prototypes and benefits enrolment processes.
Kent Stone, vice chairman, consumer banking, US Bancorp, says: "We place tremendous value on the potential of the millennial generation and this group is instrumental in making US Bank relevant to current and future millennial customers and employees."
Banks are facing increasing competition for millennial customers as a range of fintech disrupters enter the field offering more personalised, nuanced services in areas such as payments and lending.
A survey from Viacom unit Scratch last year found that a third of millennials think that they won't need a bank at all in five years, while nearly half are counting on tech startups to overhaul the industry and three quarters would be more excited about a new offering in financial services from Amazon, Google, Apple, PayPal or Square than from their own bank.