The following post is provided by Pinwheel, a MeridianLink® Marketplace partner.
For community banks and credit unions, winning primacy has never been more important, or more contested. New data from Pinwheel’s 2026 Consumer Banking Sentiment Study makes the stakes unmistakably clear: 89% of consumers name a single institution as their primary bank. That status is almost always defined by one thing: where their direct deposit lands.
The primacy problem
Pinwheel’s 2026 Consumer Banking Sentiment Study confirms what many institutions already sense: national banks dominate primacy (55%), while community banks (15%), credit unions (17%), and fintechs (12%) compete for the rest. And among the most coveted high-income households earning $200–$250k, national banks command a striking 67% primary bank share.
The advantage national banks have held for years isn’t loyalty, it’s friction elimination. Their massive technology budgets have allowed them to make direct deposit switching effortless at account opening, turning new accounts into funded, active relationships almost immediately.
How do consumers define their primary bank?
For many years, respondents to this study consistently describe primacy by “where I receive my direct deposit.” This has been followed closely by “where I receive my direct deposit AND pay the majority of my bills.” Yet, their decision process was largely driven by proximity to bank branch. Pinwheel’s 2024 study found that 41% of consumers prioritized branch experience and ATM proximity as the primary drivers.
Digital-first banks are closing the primacy gap
Digitally acquired accounts have had notoriously low activation rates, with 40%+ never achieving first funding. Activated digital accounts have also historically suffered with lower than average deposits and engagement rates, with customers choosing digital accounts seeming to be “less premium” with lower intent for primacy than those choosing to open accounts in branch.
Consequently, branch expansion and modernization have taken the lion’s share of investment at traditional banks in recent years. However, during the same period digital-only financial providers like Chime doubled down, delivering an exceptional end-to-end digital experience that rendered their customers’ need for bank branches obsolete. According to J.D. Power, Chime secured 13% of new accounts opened in 2025 and their growth outpaced all other banks, including Chase (9%), Wells Fargo (7%), and BofA (7%). Additionally, 54% of Chime’s newly acquired digital accounts became prime accounts.
An opportunity for community banks & credit unions
Community banks and credit unions occupy a uniquely enviable position in American financial services. They are mission-driven and hold a powerful trust advantage over national banks. They offer better rates, lower fees, and a genuine commitment to financial wellness that no national bank marketing campaign can credibly replicate. By almost every value important to consumers when choosing their primary bank, neighborhood financial providers should be winning.
And yet the numbers tell a more complicated story. As of Q4 2025, the median credit union reported a membership decline of 0.5%, according to the National Credit Union Administration. More than half of all federally insured credit unions had fewer members at year-end than a year prior. Membership growth in Q1 2026 slowed to just 1.81%, well below the five-year average. Smaller institutions—those under $50 million in assets—are feeling it most acutely, with some reporting membership declines as steep as 7.8%.
The trust is there. The mission is there. What too often isn’t there is the digital experience that today’s banking consumer expects as a baseline. Pinwheel’s 2026 Consumer Banking Sentiment Study, combined with a growing body of industry research, makes clear that community banks and credit unions are sitting on enormous, untapped potential.
Only 17% of consumers surveyed reported a credit union as their primary bank. This figure understates both the credit union sector’s reach—144.7 million Americans hold credit union memberships—and its missed opportunity. Having a membership relationship is not the same as being someone’s primary financial institution. Tens of millions of consumers maintain a credit union account as a secondary relationship while routing their direct deposit and bill payments elsewhere. And it is that primary relationship—where the paycheck lands and the bills get paid—that determines long-term member value.
Pinwheel + MeridianLink: your primacy partners
Pinwheel’s research establishes two key markers of true primacy: being the account that receives direct deposit (cited by 44% of consumers), and being the account that receives direct deposit AND handles bill payment (cited by 36%). Banks and credit unions that capture membership but not the direct deposit and bill pay relationship are operating at the margins of their members’ financial lives.
Current achieves 2.2x direct deposit conversions with PreMatch
Automated direct deposit capture during digital account onboarding gives community banks and credit unions the same primacy-winning technology used by the world’s leading digital banks.
How Varo Bank drives primacy with Pinwheel Switch Kit
If your institution runs MeridianLink®, you now have on-demand access to the Pinwheel Switch Kit. The same digital onboarding technology that powers primacy for Robinhood, American Express, KeyBank and many more.
Here’s what that new integration means in practice:
- Embedded, guided experience
Accountholders switch direct deposit and transition recurring bill payments without ever leaving your banking app—during onboarding or any time in digital account management. - 2x conversion rates
Pinwheel Deposit Switch with PreMatch delivers double the conversion of prior-generation direct deposit switch due to its credential-less and friction-free experience. - Rapid deployment
Available now for MeridianLink customers with minimal integration effort—no large technology project required.
To get started with Pinwheel, book a demo with an integrations expert here.
About Pinwheel
Pinwheel helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs win primacy by delivering frictionless digital experiences. Our industry-leading Switch Kit enables instant deposit and bill switching at account opening, delivering 30% more switches than any competitive solution. Through our proprietary network covering 1,800 payroll providers, 1.5 million employers, and thousands of merchants, Pinwheel connects financial institutions to real-time income, employment, deposits, and payments data. Pinwheel has raised $77M from top-tier investors including Notable, Coatue, First Round Capital, Upfront, and more.
