Incumbents at Parity?

Over the past few weeks and in several markets, I've been watching a number of incumbent banks make their regular mobile app feature updates. I think it's fair to say that for the most part, many of the larger incumbents are now more or less at parity with the features and capabilities offered by neobanks.

Anecdotally I'm seeing this in the United Kingdom when I'm talking to members of the younger generations. When I ask about banking relationship preferences, I have been assuming that most automatic preferences would be with digital-first neobanks. I've been surprised when this is absolutely not the case!

The absolutist in me would highlight that with digital banks, you're getting real-time updates, and your financial position is not dependent on some creaking batch process to take place every morning at 3am. But who actually cares about that? Perhaps this is an issue to examine for a future report!