Indifference. That’s the prevailing feeling consumers have toward their banks.

At least that’s how Jeff Stephens, chief executive of financial services branding consultancy Creative Brand Communications Inc., feels.

“For the longest time, the biggest challenge for FI is apathy,” Stephens tells Bank Innovation. “By and large, consumers are entirely indifferent to their banks or credit unions [because] they are all so comparable.”

As a result, consumers are choosing institutions based on convenience, rather than picking a bank they actually want to do business with. “I think that’s the biggest challenge any institution faces,” Stephens says, pointing out how FI apathy flies in the face of what Americans actually do love: money. “There’s a weird disconnect.”

Stephens hopes to bridge the disconnect by launching niche banking communities through a new division of his company called Tribed. In a nutshell, Tribed will partner with a bank to offer online-only ‘direct’ banks to targeted communities. The end goal is nothing short of amplifying relevance of financial services for consumers by uniting them through their actual passions.

Tribed launched its first online community this week that targets dog fanatics. Called Wag, the community site currently runs as an online publication whose content concentrates on the intersection of personal finance and dogs. Almost every facet of the dog-oriented lifestyle has a financial angle to it, such as what food the pet is fed and dog insurance, explains Stephens.

Though driving engagement is his No. 1 goal, he does not expect it to be his No. 1 hurdle.

“It’s for dog fanatics by dog fanatics,” he says.

Translation: The conversations taking place through each community site will be much more extensive than, say, a typical bank’s social media talks. There’s only so many ways to explain balancing a checking account, Stephens says, while “there’s unlimited potential for dialog about this.”

To become a member of the community, which is currently limited to 1,500, Stephens says each consumer will “have to be crazy about dogs. The whole experience is only for those people.”

Eventually, Wag will also include banking services, which he expects to launch in early 2013. The dog-lovers community is just one of many niches Tribed plans to launch.

“Ultimately, Tribed is about reorganizing banking,” Stephens says, adding it is not about capturing new customers, like the unbanked. “Banking is more or less a zero sum game,” he says. “It’s hard to create new customers.”

Because of this, Stephens says Tribed has zero ambitions to outperform other banks’ CD rates or mobile banking technology rollouts, though he expects to be on par with fellow FIs. “We want consumers to choose us solely because of the brand of the niche community,” he says.

Stephens also emphasizes that his niche banking concept goes well beyond affinity credit cards, which he believes only scratch the surface of what he’s trying to accomplish. “What we are doing is about brand first, bank second,” Stephens says.

Currently, banking operations for Tribed are in early development stages, Stephens says. In seeking a bank partner, Stephens prefers a smaller, forward-thinking institution, and only plans to have one centralized partner. But he’s in no hurry to layer in banking services to his budding communities.

“The most important thing is to focus on engaged community,” Stephens says. “We need plenty of time to get people used to the idea. There’s no precedent for it.”