UK banks face a personalisation imperative as number of customers switching accounts surges 43% year-on-year
With over 300,000 current account switches recorded for January – March 2026, and nearly half of all Britons now holding a digital-only bank account, global analytics software leader FICO (NYSE:FICO) has set out four strategic pillars that banks need to adopt to stay competitive through intelligent, personalised treatment of customers.
The UK retail banking landscape is undergoing rapid structural change. According to data from the Current Account Switch Service (CASS), 319,529 account switches took place in the first quarter of 2026 – a 43% increase year-on-year. And the appetite for digital-only accounts is growing – up from 40% in 2025 to 49% this year.
Despite this digital maturity, customer loyalty is fragile, demanding increased focus on personalisation to win and retain customers.
“The convergence of sustained switching volumes, rapid mobile adoption and rising expectations from digital-native challengers means that incumbent UK banks face a narrowing opportunity to differentiate,” explained Nikhil Behl, president of Software at FICO. “Successfully devising Next Best Actions means the customer receives an appropriate offer that meets their needs, and the financial institution retains the customer on terms that suit its risk appetite. But it hinges on a much deeper understanding of each customer, based on a combination of sophisticated analytics, automation, optimisation and ongoing two-way digital dialogue.”
FICO’s latest analysis outlines four interconnected capabilities that banks must build to successfully deploy Next Best Action strategies:
- Put the customer at the centre of every decision – Every interaction, regardless of product or channel, must be informed by a unified view of individual customer behaviour and needs, balanced against the institution’s risk appetite.
- Break down internal silos – Customer-centricity fails when business lines cannot share data and insight with one another. Agile, cloud-hosted decisioning platforms are essential to connect previously fragmented customer intelligence.
- Invest in always-on, data-agnostic analytics – Delivering the right offer through the right channel at the right moment requires continuous improvement powered by AI, machine learning and real-time data, including “just in time” data sources previously untapped by traditional lenders.
- Embrace agentic event-driven orchestration – Move from campaign management to autonomous orchestration of the Next Best Action. Rather than executing predefined journeys, AI agents interpret life events, behavioural triggers and business priorities in real time, dynamically determining and coordinating the next best action across customer touchpoints.