By Ane Unamuno (Senior Manager)
“How do we move more customers from cash into investments?”.
It’s a question we hear a fair amount in our work with banks across the world and may be one that you’re asking (or being asked) at the moment...
From a commercial perspective, the rationale is absolutely clear; assets under management (AUM) are typically more attractive than deposits, investment relationships tend to be stickier, lifetime value is higher, and in an environment where savings margins are compressed and competition for deposits is high, the economic benefits are hard to ignore.
At the same time, your customers are facing inflation, longer retirement horizons and increasing pressure (both social and financial) to make their money work harder and go further.
On paper the strategic direction appears aligned with customer need, but it isn’t as simple as your typical cross-sell opportunity. It represents a more fundamental repositioning of your bank’s role in customers’ financial lives, from being a ‘safe custodian of cash’ to acting as a ‘long-term wealth partner’.
That shift is structural and behavioural, and in our experience is often underestimated.
When we speak to strategy, product and commercial teams inside banks, the ambition is usually well defined. There is a clear desire to increase investment penetration, to move mass-affluent customers towards self-serve propositions, and to reduce structural reliance on low-margin cash balances.
Yet when we speak directly to customers, the picture is often more complex.
For many people, cash is associated with safety, control and certainty. It provides reassurance, particularly in uncertain economic environments. Investments, by contrast, are frequently associated with risk, volatility and complexity. Even customers who understand the long-term benefits of investing can feel emotionally uncomfortable with short-term fluctuation.
There is also a perception gap to contend with. In several markets, customers do not instinctively associate their primary bank with investment expertise. Digital-native platforms often feel more purpose-built for investing, even when the bank has broader capabilities and deeper balance sheet strength.
This gap between strategic ambition and customer perception is really important. You cannot successfully encourage customers to invest without understanding how they conceptualise money and risk in the first place. The challenge is less about product availability and more about mental models.
How do customers define risk? Is it permanent loss, temporary volatility, or simply a lack of control? How confident do they feel making financial decisions independently? Do they trust their bank to guide them, or do they see it primarily as a transactional provider? And perhaps most importantly, do they believe investing is relevant to someone like them?
Without proper answers to these questions, even well-designed propositions will struggle.
If increasing investment adoption is the objective, proposition design needs to address both practical barriers and psychological ones. Too often (and we see this a lot) strategies focus on improving conversion metrics without fully addressing the confidence gap that sits underneath them.
Many banks continue to segment customers primarily by income or asset levels. While commercially useful, this approach tells you remarkably little about investment readiness.
In our experience, attitudinal and behavioural segmentation is far more revealing. Customers differ significantly in their tolerance for risk, their financial literacy, their long-term planning orientation and their emotional comfort with uncertainty. Two individuals with identical balances can have entirely different appetites for investing. Treating them as equivalent because their assets fall within the same band inevitably leads to blunt targeting and mis-aligned messaging.
Life-stage triggers also matter. Events such as inheritance, property sale or retirement planning can fundamentally reshape openness to investing. Without insight into these moments, banks risk either approaching customers too early or missing windows of genuine receptivity.
For many customers, the leap from a traditional savings account to a market-based investment product feels significant and expecting them to make that jump without transitional steps is, to put it politely, unrealistic.
Bridging mechanisms can play an important role here. Hybrid savings-investment solutions, automatic sweep models for surplus balances, gradual risk portfolios and lower minimum thresholds can all reduce perceived barriers. However, these tools only work when they are grounded in an understanding of what genuinely builds reassurance.
At what point does risk feel acceptable rather than alarming? Which features create a sense of control? What trade-offs are customers willing to accept in exchange for potential returns? These are empirical questions, not assumptions.
Even when customers express interest in investing, friction within the journey can quickly undermine their intent. Onboarding processes can feel overly complex, risk profiling can feel intimidating, and fee structures can appear opaque. Even small moments of uncertainty often lead to abandonment.
Journey diagnostics frequently reveal that lack of appetite is not the primary barrier. Instead, it is a drop in confidence at specific points in the process. Identifying and addressing those moments requires detailed behavioural insight rather than aggregate conversion data alone.
For marketing teams, encouraging investment adoption involves a delicate recalibration of tone.
Retail banking messaging has historically emphasised security, stability and guarantees. Investment propositions require a different narrative, one centred on long-term outcomes, managed risk and informed decision-making. The challenge is to introduce that narrative without undermining the trust built around safety.
In markets such as the UK, this balancing act is further shaped by regulatory expectations, including Consumer Duty requirements. Communications must demonstrably support customer understanding and suitability. The line between encouragement and inappropriate pressure is narrow, particularly in volatile markets.
The most effective messaging we see tends to normalise investing rather than dramatise it. It acknowledges risk without amplifying fear, frames volatility in context and reinforces the customer’s sense of control. Subtle language choices can materially influence how confident or anxious customers feel and testing those choices rigorously is therefore a really a non-negotiable.
Another common oversight we see is assuming that the investment adoption challenge looks the same everywhere.
In the UK, trust in banks remains relatively strong, but trust in banks as investment specialists is more nuanced. There is an established ISA culture, yet a persistent bias toward cash ISAs. Fintech competition is visible and, in some segments, compelling. The challenge here often revolves around perception and reassurance rather than basic awareness.
In the United States, retail investment culture is more deeply embedded and comfort with equities is generally higher. Many banks operate alongside integrated brokerage arms, which changes both competitive dynamics and customer expectations. In this context, differentiation and user experience frequently take precedence over education.
In parts of the Middle East and Asia, rapid wealth accumulation and strong relationship-driven models shape behaviour differently again. In some markets, structured and alternative products are more common, and trust may sit more with individual advisors than institutions. Een within the Middle East and Asia, cultural attitudes toward risk vary significantly.
In short, there is no universal playbook. Strategies that succeed in one market can fail in another if they are not grounded in localised customer, cultural and competitive insight.
When banks expand their investment propositions, they often benchmark themselves primarily against traditional peers. From the customer’s perspective, however, the competitive set is much broader.
Robo-advisors, trading apps, wealth managers, social communities and comparison platforms all shape expectations. Customers research independently, compare fees in real time and expect digital journeys that feel intuitive and transparent.
Without robust competitor intelligence, banks can easily misprice their offer, overestimate their digital differentiation or position themselves against the wrong reference point. Understanding how customers perceive your offer relative to these alternatives is just as important as understanding the features themselves.
There is also a reputational dimension to consider. Encouraging customers to invest inappropriately, or at the wrong time, can damage trust and invite regulatory scrutiny. In volatile markets, poorly framed messaging can feel opportunistic rather than supportive.
This is particularly sensitive for financially vulnerable customers or those with limited resilience. Investment adoption strategies must therefore be context-aware and aligned with genuine customer benefit. The commercial upside is meaningful, but so too is the potential downside.
Shifting customers from savings to investments is not a campaign with a defined start and end point. Instead, it is a behavioural transformation that requires sustained effort.
Banks that make progress in this area typically invest in several key capabilities:
Without this foundation, the strategic shift risks being driven by internal margin pressure rather than external customer reality.
Ultimately, banks won’t succeed in moving customers from savings to investments by pushing harder or redesigning product brochures. To achieve what they want they need to understand which customers are genuinely ready, which require education and reassurance, and which should not be encouraged at all. Encouraging investment adoption is not primarily a product challenge, it’s a behavioural one, and meaningful behavioural change begins with deep, disciplined insight into how customers think, feel and decide.
📞 If you’d like help understanding your customers so you can make data-backed marketing, product and strategy decisions, feel free to set up a quick intro call with one of our experts.