By Michelle Walkey, Executive Vice President, Research, Angus Reid Group
After more than two decades working in financial services, one pattern became clear. The biggest shifts rarely announce themselves through headline numbers.
Across roles in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., I have spent years looking at market landscapes, primary bank usage and brand performance. Those measures are useful, and they still matter. But over time, it became clear how much comfort they could provide, particularly when those numbers appeared stable year after year. When usage does not reflect a changing landscape, it creates the impression that competitive dynamics are holding. In practice, that impression can be misleading.
When stability hides change
That realization came from seeing how often established financial institutions were caught off guard by changes that were already well underway. From a brand perspective, very little appeared to be happening. From a relationship perspective, the market was shifting in ways that traditional views did not always surface.
When analysis moves beyond which institution people are using and looks instead at the full set of financial relationships they maintain, a very different picture emerges. The types of financial relationships people have (e.g. transaction only, or investment only, etc.) reveal where value is actually concentrated and where it is starting to move. When the market is viewed this way, change tends to appear earlier, often well before it registers in top-line brand metrics.
Why relationships matter more than brands
This became especially clear when looking at younger consumers entering their prime financial expansion years. In Canada, challengers such as Wealthsimple and Questrade did not grow by replacing a primary bank relationship. They grew by pulling investments out of existing relationships, which proved significant because investment accounts add stickiness to a financial relationship and often signal where long-term value will ultimately reside. And once they moved, the nature of the overall relationship changed, even if individuals continued to bank elsewhere for day-to-day needs.
From the outside, the “Big Five” banks looked relatively steady. Internally, many did not realize how much of their investment base had quietly shifted until it showed up downstream. The nature of the relationship proved crucial.
Relationship-based analysis, one assessing how people’s financial lives are configured, brings a different set of questions into focus, including:
● How is the structure of consumers’ financial relationships changing over time?
● Where is long-term financial value migrating — even if primary banking relationships remain stable?
● How vulnerable are existing relationships based on their depth and breadth?
● How are younger or emerging segments configuring their financial ecosystems?
● How do these relationships change as needs and confidence evolve?What early indicators signal pressure before traditional brand metrics move?
When you examine the market through that lens, the implications are hard to miss. As investment relationships moved elsewhere, the remaining relationships became narrower, more transactional, and now very vulnerable reducing the bank’s ability to hold or grow additional products as consumers reassessed where different parts of their financial lives belonged. What started as a single change reshaped the entire financial profile.
What this means for decision-makers
Competition in financial services rarely plays out in one dramatic move. It unfolds through a series of small, rational decisions as consumers assemble financial lives that work for them. Life stage, access to alternatives and shifting expectations all influence how those relationships are configured over time.
What shifted my thinking was not a single study, but repeated exposure to the same pattern in the data. Brand usage often appeared stable, even as deeper analysis suggested that the nature of those relationships was changing, with implications for loyalty, growth and the ability to expand product relationships over time. Younger consumers, in particular, appeared confident and engaged, yet less anchored to any one institution. That disconnect pushed me to look beyond who people said they banked with and focus instead on how their financial lives were actually structured, which meant examining relationships rather than customers.
Viewed through that lens, change becomes visible earlier. Shifts in value surface before they register in primary usage metrics, and relationships that appear stable on the surface often prove more fragile underneath.
This is where financial services market research earns its value. At its best, research helps organizations understand how the market is changing and where they still have room to respond, particularly when traditional indicators suggest little has moved.
In my experience, insight is most useful when it surfaces early signs of pressure and gives organizations the time and clarity to respond deliberately.
That is the kind of shift traditional tracking struggles to capture.
Michelle Walkey brings more than 20 years of experience in market research to her role as Executive Vice President of Research at Angus Reid Group (www.angusreid.com), specializing in Financial Services across retail banking, credit cards, wealth management, and innovation. With deep industry knowledge and a forward-looking perspective, she understands the evolving financial services ecosystem and the forces shaping customer expectations. Michelle is also a respected leader who has built and developed high-performing teams and businesses across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
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