TROY, Mich.— Retail banks may be holding steady on overall customer satisfaction, but new data from J.D. Power suggest many customers are quietly deepening relationships elsewhere, a sign of what the firm calls a growing “soft switching” trend that could erode primary banking ties over time.
According to the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, overall satisfaction rose just two points year-over-year to 657 on a 1,000-point scale, but customer experience weakened across key channels in the second half of the year, including phone, branch, online and automated service interactions. J.D. Power said those cracks in the customer journey are coinciding with more customers opening and funding accounts at multiple institutions.
“Retail banks are confronting an incredibly complex, highly nuanced set of challenges in the current marketplace,” said Jennifer White, senior director of financial services intelligence at J.D. Power. She said the study points to declining satisfaction with personal service interactions and growing evidence that customers are gradually shifting funds away from their primary bank.
Among the study’s key findings: the average checking customer now maintains three deposit accounts at different institutions; 20% of customers said they moved money away from their primary bank within the past three months, up from 17% a year earlier; and the customers most likely to move funds were those under age 40 (23%), affluent or mass affluent (25%), and financially healthy (24%). J.D. Power also found national banks have narrowed the gap with midsize institutions on problem resolution, with satisfaction rising to 587 among national banks, up 49 points from 2024, while midsize banks fell to 548, down 27 points.
The study, now in its 21st year, measured customer satisfaction across 15 geographic regions.
Top-ranked banks by region were: California—Chase (669); Florida—Chase (704); Illinois—Wintrust Community Banks (707); Lower Midwest—BancFirst (738); Mid-Atlantic—Capital One (693); New England—Bangor Savings Bank (712); North Central—City National Bank (WV) (700); Northwest—Chase (661); New York Tri-State—Capital One (686); Pennsylvania—Huntington (702); South Central—FirstBank (705); Southeast—United Community (725); Southwest—Chase (673); Texas—Frost (757); and Upper Midwest—Gate City Bank (718).
The 2026 study is based on responses from 107,059 retail customers surveyed from January 2025 through January 2026 and measures satisfaction across seven dimensions, led by trust, people, account offerings, convenience, value, digital channels, and problem resolution.