Jefferson City, Mo.-based Central Bank is looking to data analytics and AI to provide customers with insights about their financial health and increase overall engagement. 

“We have 7 million mobile banking logins a month on our platform, but the average time on the app is less than a minute,” Daniel Westhues, executive vice president of retail banking at Central Bank, said during a webinar hosted by Finovate on March 28.

“Customers come to our platform to make a transaction … but I want to slow the customers down and provide additional value to customers to advance their financial lives,” Westhues said.  

Total monthly mobile logins have been slightly up compared to the prior year, Westhues said. By comparison, Bank of America reported 3.3. billion mobile logins in 2023, up 10% year over year, according to its 2023 annual report published Feb. 20.  

To increase engagement, the $20 billion, Central Bank teamed with Tel Aviv, Israel-based Personetics to build 60 data- and AI-driven customer insights, Westhues said.  

The customer insights include: 

• Money management; 
• Autopay enrollment; 
• Credit score booster; and 
• Financial goal-setting. 

The new tools will “reinforce the value of the [bank/client] relationship,” Westhues said. 

Increasing customer engagement is an ongoing effort at the bank. An automated savings solution that rounds to the next digit in transactions and then places the difference into the consumer’s savings account was launched last year, Westhues said. The solution added $15 million to customer accounts, he said. 

Predictive insight trend 

Banks are starting to tap into personalized insights to improve customer engagement and deposit retention. 

For example, Toronto-based BMO implemented Personetics’ savings solution in March 2023, leading to the opening of 20,000 savings accounts in the first quarter, Jody Bhagat, president of Americas at Personetics, said during the webinar. 

With these services, banks can stop deposit outflow to fintechs and even grow them, he said. 

“We know that customers are more engaged in the digital channel and more engaged with personalized insights and interactions,” Bhagat said. “Banks that are helping [customers] with that have higher deposit balances and a higher average number of accounts.”