Banks expand services to deepen customer ties
Financial institutions are increasingly deepening their customer relationships by focusing on areas where enhanced control, expertise, or ownership can solidify their market standing. This shift marks a departure from the previous decade’s focus, where banks and fintech firms primarily vied for dominance in digital services, customer acquisition, and product diversity.
The trend cuts across different kinds of banking models, with Live Oak Bank going deeper into specific small-business industries rather than trying to be a bank for everyone.
Live Oak Bank was founded in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2008, and began with a narrow proposition of lending to veterinarians. This specialization became the foundation for a very different kind of bank, serving customers nationally across roughly 40 industry verticals.
The bank describes itself as a digitally focused small-business bank, and its strategy was knowing the customer better, rather than treating digital distribution as the strategy. Live Oak put veterinarians, dentists, and funeral home directors on staff to understand how those businesses operated.
This approach gives the bank more context when evaluating lending opportunities, and Live Oak is now layering AI into that model through its work with Cascading AI, helping automate parts of the loan origination process.
Live Oak has been piloting Casca across different parts of the lending workflow, with plans to expand its use, and Cascading AI recently won the AI Product of the Year at Tearsheet’s 2026 AI Innovation Awards.
Other banks, such as Stifel Bank and SoFi, are also rebuilding their models, with Stifel Bank focusing on relationships, capital, and advice, and SoFi introducing a bank-issued stablecoin underneath a $25 billion card program.
New U.S. entrant Nubank is considering a potential acquisition of Monzo, even as it builds out its own U.S. banking footprint, showing the various ways banks are trying to own more of the financial relationship.
