For bank and credit union executives, data might be your most valuable—yet underutilized—asset. While financial institutions collect vast amounts of information from every customer interaction, back-office operation, and employee engagement, most struggle to transform this raw material into actionable intelligence. And actionable intelligence is what powers better bank performance and more valuable performance benchmarking.
The Data Gold Mine in Banking
Every swipe, click, and transaction within your institution creates a data point. But where does that data go and what can it tell you about your operations?
According to findings from Cornerstone Advisors, over 50% of banks report that siloed data prevents them from making real-time decisions, while only 6% of bank executives and 11% of credit union executives believe they have a “very effective” data strategy.
This data, when properly activated, isn’t digital debris—it’s strategic gold.
With activated data, bank performance benchmarking matures from simple metric comparisons to a sophisticated strategic tool that allows institutions to understand their position in the marketplace and act decisively.
Activate Your Data Where It Matters Most
Forward-thinking financial institutions are activating their data across multiple dimensions. When you activate data, you apply intelligence to every decision, challenge or opportunity.
Let’s examine a few use cases where activated data makes a difference:
Relationship Management: Data provides critical insights into changing customer and member needs over time. By benchmarking metrics like accounts per household against industry averages, you can identify opportunities to deepen relationships.
Your data answers critical competitive questions: How does your new account acquisition rate compare to peers? How do your accounts per household stack up? Where are your deposits concentrated? This intelligence enables targeted strategies that increase product sales, improve retention, and build more valuable long-term relationships.
Goals & Incentives Tracking: Activated data pinpoints which employees excel at identifying customer needs, offering appropriate products, and delivering service solutions. This intelligence allows you to establish meaningful internal performance benchmarks. By comparing individual and team metrics against these benchmarks, you can reward high performers and provide targeted coaching to underachievers, creating a performance-driven culture grounded in objective, data-backed goals.
Onboarding & Campaign Success: Research shows the first 90 days of a customer relationship is when most additional products are purchased. Activated data helps you benchmark your onboarding effectiveness, analyzing exactly when customers open additional accounts and comparing product penetration metrics by channel and demographics. This intelligence enables you to anticipate needs with next-best product prompts, measure campaign ROI, and optimize the crucial early relationship period when loyalty is established.
Loan Portfolio Optimization: Activated data illuminates your entire loan application pipeline from initial outreach to final approval. By benchmarking metrics like average credit scores, application approval rates, time-to-close, and funding rates, you can identify specific operational improvement opportunities. This intelligence can help your institution optimize indirect lending relationships, understand how your conversion metrics compare to competitors, and implement targeted initiatives to improve both efficiency and profitability across the loan portfolio.
Track Trends (& Traps) with Performance Benchmarking
As a recent article in BAI Banking Strategies puts it, “Benchmarking can indicate emerging trends, either at an institution-wide level or focused on the individual business unit or a branch-to-branch snapshot.”
These trends can signal new growth opportunities or red flags that need to be addressed.
Financial institutions that effectively benchmark their performance using activated data report significant advantages in key areas:
- Operational Efficiency: By identifying process inefficiencies and bottlenecks, banks can streamline workflows and reduce costs. This can help banks improve their efficiency ratios and keep them aligned with industry standards. Deloitte estimates that the industry’s average efficiency ratio will hover around 60% this year, which is a few percentage points higher than previous years. Finding ways to keep costs under control while pursuing growth will be a priority and data can pave the way to accomplish this.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Personalized interactions based on (you guessed it!) actionable data meaningfully influence performance benchmarks like Net Promotor Scores and customer or member retention, which both measure loyalty.
- Revenue Growth: Institutions that leverage data intelligence tend to generate more revenue per employee, with top performers generating over $287,000 per employee – a figure expected to exceed $400,000 in the next five years thanks to AI, according to Cornerstone. This can directly impact several bank performance benchmarks, including return on assets and return on equity.
From Byproduct to Benchmark
Those who transform their raw data into actionable intelligence will thrive; those who don’t risk falling behind. The question isn’t whether you have enough data—it’s whether you’re truly activating it for better performance benchmarking and decision-making.
By unlocking information trapped in various channels and systems, banks and credit unions are equipped to make smarter decisions, capitalize on new opportunities, and drive operational efficiencies that were previously unattainable.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your data? Discover how Kinective can help your financial institution transform data from a byproduct of operations into a strategic engine for innovation and growth.
