Customer league table sends stark loyalty warning to UK banks

The Current Account Switching Service (CASS) has revealed its latest ‘league table’ this week, showing which UK banks lost and gained the most customers in the third quarter of 2025.

And with more than 265,000 current account switches made in these three months alone, the statistics act as an urgent reminder for the banking sector, when it comes to customer loyalty.

Topping the leaderboard for the greatest net gain is Nationwide, which welcomed almost 55,000 new customers into the brand during that period.

Still the largest building society in the world, Nationwide has been particularly impressive with its efforts to attract Gen Z customers – a segment of the market that has dominated a vast amount of marketers’ attention in recent years.

In 2024, we facilitated the strategic partnership between Nationwide and Just Eat, providing students with added value – beyond merely a cash incentive – when opening a new account.

The collaboration of these two iconic brands appealed to young people through food, convenience and experience, promoting fonder memories over a longer period of time.

Recognising that younger people struggle to budget for food, Nationwide continued to attract attention at the start of this latest academic year too, with its NationFried campaign hitting the headlines within media giants such as Bloomberg UK. To celebrate the launch of Nationwide’s interest-free student account – with perks including £120 of Just Eat vouchers, and an additional £40 of vouchers on offer for referring up to two friends – the brand served free fry ups, universi-tea and money tips, with the help of TV star Olivia Attwood and social media content creator Joe Baggs. According to the Bloomberg article: “More than 10,000 student accounts were opened during the promotion’s launch period, a 270% increase on the prior year.”

Statista data – which revealed in July 2025 that digitally-native Gen Zs are the most likely to switch – helps to explain the banks’ race to differentiate their acquisition efforts. Of course the potential lifetime value of a relationship with these young people, makes this demographic an even more compelling target. But the lifetime value will only be realised if brand loyalty initiatives are as equally successful.

In fact, earlier this year, TLC authored another blog on this topic, which encouraged banks to monitor – and help prevent – inactivity among their customer base. Looking beyond the initial acquisition focus, the piece explored the need to ensure customers are engaged, transacting and considering wider products and services, to help prevent the temptation to move. Reward relevance is key here.

Last year, research from American-based digital banking brand Q2 revealed that 74% of consumers (across all generations) seek more personalised experiences from their financial institutions. This data reinforces the notion that customers want to bank with a brand that demonstrates it understands them, and values their personal needs, life stage, and interests.

With over 30 years’ experience working with the world’s biggest financial services brands, we encourage our clients to prioritise the Loyalty Benefits Trinity. This sees savvy banks offering:

• Rational benefits such as advisory services and a user-friendly app, to appeal to the head;
• Financial benefits including competitive interest rates or spend-related bonuses, to benefit customers’ pocket;
• Emotional benefits in the form of tailored rewards, to appeal to the heart.

Consistently serving rewards that actually matter, consequently leads to deeper customer relationships, emotional engagement, and longer-term retention. But this is not a new trend. Back in 2015, Statista warned that 58% of millennials will leave a loyalty program if the rewards are not compelling or relevant enough.

Curating personalised rewards may sound difficult, but armed with mass spending data, banks actually have perfect insights into the experiences that will be the most useful, valuable and/or memorable for otherwise potentially ‘flighty’ customers.

Collaborating with an experienced rewards specialist like TLC makes this curation process easier still. Our rewards partner ecosystem gives brands access to more than 100,000 global rewards including travel, wellness, entertainment, shopping, activities and dining, to name just a few. But if inspiration – or headspace – is lacking, our creative team can even conceptualise something completely different to what’s been done before. That’s why some of the most experienced CMOs in the world come to us.

We can even help banks monitor the popularity of their rewards programs through our COSMOS platform, which unlocks participation and redemption insights to ensure ongoing decision making based on evidence not presumption.

Gartner data showed that budgets remained tight for CMOs in 2025, and 2026 predictions suggest there’ll be no let up when it comes to ROI justification.

TLC’s earlier advice in response to marketers spending more but getting less, will therefore apply more than ever as banks head into the new year.

While cash incentives will always turn heads, they’re not sustainable – every pound a bank gives away is a pound off the bottom line. This becomes a financial black hole when signing up new customers with no promise of retention.

Against the backdrop of continued spend scrutiny, it’s especially important to switch margin-eroding cash offers with incentives proven to deliver bigger returns.

None of the UK banks and building societies have escaped losses entirely, with customer movement seen across all 20 brands listed, over the last quarter. So if you’re looking for a sharper view of how your acquisition and loyalty strategy is likely to stack up as you prepare for next year, take our 5-minute assessment to:

• Benchmark your performance against other marketing leaders in your sector
• Uncover your untapped potential
• Signpost your next steps to stronger customer engagement.