It’s a time of reflection and anticipation at Tech Finance Daily throughout December, as we look back at key developments over the past 12 months and explore what lies ahead for 2025.
From banks embracing retail media to loyalty programmes serving up personalised ecosystems, the industry’s biggest players are doubling down on one core principle: personalisation.
As customers demand more tailored experiences and smoother journeys, experts believe this trend will shape everything from payments to banking products, cementing personalisation as the key to winning hearts, minds and wallets in the year ahead.
Moving banking forward with data-driven personalisation
Andrew Harris, managing director and head of product and customer at Jenius Bank, foresees a fundamental shift in how banks approach product development.
“In 2024, key moments in fintech highlighted the growing emphasis on personalised customer experiences in digital banking,” says Harris. “While data analytics became integral to crafting tailored products, maintaining a human touch remained a challenge.
“The demand for omnichannel customer experiences also highlighted consumer expectations for seamless interactions across mobile apps, websites and in-person services. Amid economic uncertainty, many fintech companies prioritised transparency and personalised financial advice, helping consumers navigate tough times by offering smarter financial solutions.
“Looking ahead to 2025, data-driven personalisation will continue dominating, with banks using customer insights to create products that strengthen overall relationships. Customer experience (CX) will become a critical differentiator, as fintech companies vie for consumer loyalty; those that fail to meet evolving expectations risk losing relevance.”
Banks tap into retail media opportunities
Taking this focus on customer relationships further, Cornelia Reitinger, head of advertising business development at data and AI solutions company SAS, sees 2025 as a year when consumer banks expand into retail media. By leveraging their wealth of first-party data, banks can create personalised third-party offers that integrate easily with their services.
“In 2025, consumer banks will make a significant move into retail media, following models set by Chase, Revolut and PayPal,” she says.
“By incorporating personalised third-party offers using their high-quality, first-party data, financial firms will be able to offer tailored promotions that blend with in-house offers and services. This will not only deepen customer engagement but also create new revenue streams and position banks as important players in the evolving retail media landscape.”
Payment methods that cater to customers
Building on this, Cindy Turner, chief product officer at global payments provider Worldpay, delves deeper into how payment personalisation can reshape customer experiences on a global scale.
“Heading into 2025, a single-channel approach is no longer sufficient for businesses looking to attract and retain customers, particularly across the global market,” Turner says. “While the benefits of personalised and localised payment methods have been long promoted, merchants that fail to offer both could see them lose the interest of up to 37 per cent of prospective customers.
“To personalise at scale and adopt a truly customer-centric strategy, leveraging payments data is key. This allows merchants to quickly identify areas of friction to make incremental changes and improve payment journeys – it’s rarely about a complete overhaul.
“At the same time, data enables the anticipation of customer preference, whether it’s the need to offer local currencies or accept burgeoning methods, like account-to-account (A2A), in specific markets. A strategy that accounts for these preferences then needs to be unified and optimised across all channels – both online and in physical locations.
“The risk of transaction abandonment is a very real eventuality if this isn’t addressed, but with a support network of experts in payments, creating truly localised and personalised payment experiences is more than achievable.”
Leveraging data for personalised engagement
The growing importance of personalisation comes down to one thing: data, suggests Campbell Shaw, head of UK banking at digital advertising company Cardlytics.
“Data will continue to play a key role for banks, both from a customer privacy perspective but also through leveraging data to form new insights and use-cases, offering better offers and promotions to build stronger bonds with customers and drive increased revenue,” Shaw explains.
Shaw believes that with the right data, banks can move away from the one-size-fits-all approach.
“Banks will fully embrace personalisation, moving to a more customer-centric method of building products. Instead of starting with the lending product, for example, and then establishing how customers will buy it, banks will view the customer as the starting point, building products around them and their life stages – leading to a better customer experience.”
Humanising the digital experience
Jon Tvrdik, CEO and founder of WaveCX, a provider of personalised, digital product engagement solutions for financial institutions, sees an opportunity to streamline the way customers interact with FIs. He advocates for AI-powered tools that prioritise simplicity and personalisation in digital interfaces.
“It’s 2025, and we need to stop burying important functionality behind endless clicks. It’s time to move toward post-navigation UIs that embrace command-line interfaces and generative search. AI-powered engagement tools that combine intelligent search with contextual navigation – spanning both public and authenticated spaces – can transform how financial institutions serve their customers.
“Instead of hunting through menus and pages, a user types a simple query and immediately gets not just an answer, but a guided action to solve their problem. It’s seamless, personalised and efficient. That’s the kind of accessibility and user-centric service we need to focus on.
“In 2025, my hope is that financial institutions start to lead the charge in humanising digital experiences by putting simplicity and personalisation at the forefront. Fintechs have a huge role to play here by providing the tools and expertise to make these experiences possible. We need to focus on delivering real solutions that build trust and loyalty while keeping financial services intuitive, accessible and proactive.”
Loyalty programmes get a personalised makeover
Expanding the focus from payments to rewards, Len Covello, CTO at loyalty technology provider Engage People, explains how loyalty programmes are changing to meet the demand for instant gratification and tailored rewards.
“In 2024, a standout moment was the integration of credit card rewards points redemption at point of sale (POS), which has quickly become a cornerstone of loyalty strategies, driving deeper consumer engagement and transforming the shopping experience,” says Covello.
“Consumers now expect to instantly redeem points both in-store and online, reshaping the loyalty programme landscape. Meanwhile, the rise of AI-driven personalisation, fueled by data analytics, has redefined the loyalty and rewards space, offering tailored experiences that move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions.
“As we look ahead to 2025, the integration of digital wallets and alternative payment methods with loyalty programs will revolutionise the way consumers pay. Loyalty points will become a universal, accessible form of currency, seamlessly incorporated into everyday transactions.
“Alongside this, we anticipate a surge in micro-redemptions and on-demand rewards as consumers increasingly crave instant gratification. Loyalty programmes will adapt to offer real-time redemption, keeping pace with today’s fast-moving shopping behaviours.”
Driving engagement with aspirational rewards
The evolution of loyalty programmes doesn’t stop at instant gratification or seamless integration, says Sebastian Grobys, head of corporate development at global fintech Ascenda. He sees financial institutions taking things a step further by focusing on aspirational rewards that foster emotional connections with customers.
“Historically, players have centered their marketing investments on customer acquisition, leveraging vanilla incentives such as cash-back or gift cards, which are easy to implement but transactional in nature,” he said.
“Driven by growing competition and investor expectations around sustainable economics, fintechs are now increasing their focus on driving usage and stickiness through emotional customer connections.
Personalised incentives and active lifecycle marketing are becoming the key to driving profitable behaviors by matching customers’ personal preferences and passions. Financial brands will increasingly leverage more aspirational rewards propositions across categories such as travel, dining, and exclusive access to create lasting memories and deeper brand affinity, ultimately unlocking greater usage and stickiness.”
