From transaction to relationship: Advice Group opens a new frontier in the era of communities for Financial Services
Advice Group launches new business unit to help banks, insurance companies, and fintechs build more human, personal, and measurable engagement models
In an increasingly fragmented financial market, the true competitive battlefield is no longer just the product, but the relationship. In recent years, the banking and insurance sectors have seen a profound shift in consumer habits. Today’s customers are no longer loyal to a single institution; instead, they spread their services, payments, credit, investments, and insurance across various platforms, choosing the most convenient or user-friendly providers each time. The multibanking and unbundling phenomenon, highlighted as early as 2023 by Bain & Company, has steadily eroded the traditional concept of banking loyalty, weakening the bond between financial brands and users.
Compounding this evolution is another structural shift set to redefine the industry: the steady closure of physical branches. According to KPMG estimates, the number of bank branches will decline by 20% by 2029, accelerating the loss of the human touch that for decades served as a primary tool for understanding the customer. The result is a shrinking pool of qualitative and relational insights available to operators, precisely when the market demands a far more sophisticated understanding of individual behaviors.
Despite Italy exceeding the global average by 18 percentage points in offering ecosystem services, according to Deloitte, the relationship between banks and customers continues to weaken, and engagement remains fragmented. This gap becomes even clearer when examining loyalty: only 33% of Italian banks offer structured loyalty programs, compared to a global average of 95%. Furthermore, just 48% provide benefits linked to external partners, compared to 78% internationally. This lag highlights a market still heavily focused on transactions rather than on building long-term, ongoing relationships.
Meanwhile, entirely new models of lifestyle banking are emerging internationally. These revolve around an everyday ecosystem comprising mobility, entertainment, shopping, and value-added services, supported by strategic partnerships designed to engage specific communities and touch real-life moments beyond the strictly financial sphere. In this scenario, the ability to understand user behavior, passions, and habits becomes the decisive lever for generating long-term value.
It is precisely with this vision in mind that Advice Group announces the launch of its new Financial Services Business Unit: a dedicated division built to guide banks, insurance companies, and fintechs through the evolution of their engagement and customer loyalty strategies using advanced, data-driven tools. The goal is to bridge the relational gap that currently separates many financial providers from their customers by restoring deep customer knowledge to the center of the strategy. The new BU is founded on a clear paradigm shift: moving beyond mere transactional data to leverage behavioral data. This means going past purchase history and transaction logs to build a system that analyzes interactions, interests, passions, and habits, creating a unified and centralized user profile. This approach enables operators to design more effective, personalized relationship strategies across the entire customer lifecycle.
Advice Group’s methodology operates on two strategic levels: horizontal, by covering the entire customer journey, and vertical, through targeted campaigns designed for high-potential, specific clusters. The proposed model actively intervenes at every stage of the relationship, from acquisition, using advanced prospect profiling, to daily engagement driven by behavioral loyalty, moving beyond traditional incentives to reward positive behaviors such as saving and financial literacy. The journey culminates in advocacy, turning customers into authentic brand ambassadors who build trust and reduce acquisition costs.
Another key differentiator of the new BU is the precise measurement of performance and the accurate tracking of ROI. Thanks to the dynamic clustering of the customer base, financial providers can roll out promotions and initiatives that genuinely reflect user behavior and its evolution over time, maximizing campaign effectiveness and customer-perceived relevance. Advice Group’s expertise in the financial services sector is already well established through collaborations with major market players, including Findomestic Banca (BNP Paribas Group) and ViViBanca. This know-how now crystallizes into a specialized Business Unit created to tackle one of the sector’s biggest challenges: converting data into relationships and giving financial institutions a genuine, meaningful place in people’s daily lives.
Joining the new Business Unit as Expert Partner for Advice Group is Antonio Vella, a veteran professional with over 25 years of experience leading strategic projects in the banking and financial sectors at firms including MBS Consulting (Cerved Group) and Resolving StrategyFinance.
Today, the true competitive asset is no longer just the product or the technology, but the quality of the relationship a brand can build with its customers. In a fragmented financial experience landscape, the ability to understand people’s true behaviors, interests, and needs becomes the strategic lever to drive trust, continuity, and long-term value.
Developing and enhancing customer relationships increasingly relies on providing innovative services that truly address individual needs through intuitive, user-friendly tools. Technological innovation must seamlessly integrate into people’s daily routines to elevate the user experience in a highly customized way, thereby fostering an authentic and lasting bond of trust between companies and their customers.
