Community bank clients are generally not looking to leave, but they fill product gaps through other banks and fintech firms. In Datos Insights’ Q1 2026 survey of SMBs, community bank clients trail Big 4 clients in primary-bank adoption in seven of eight product categories, by as much as 35 percentage points on business credit cards. Among community bank clients who use fintech services, 91% say they would prefer to get those services from their primary bank.
Each outside relationship compounds the risk, because a competitor that originates a loan or issues a card gains data and trust it uses to cross-sell. Datos Insights recommends four moves: address the credit card gap first, deploy expense management as a daily touchpoint, audit product gaps before committing capital, and convert payroll, the one category where community banks match the Big 4, into a platform foundation.
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