How Banks Can Make Deposit Incentives Pay Off

Deposit incentives can still attract attention. The harder question is whether they attract the right customers—and whether those relationships last long enough to justify the cost. 

In the July ProSight Executive Report, “Profitable Growth in Banking,” the ProSight research team examines why incentive strategy has become a more exacting exercise. While 82% of financial institutions expect positive deposit growth in 2026, consumer sentiment remains tentative, acquisition costs are high, and younger customers are more willing to switch providers. 

That creates opportunity. It also raises the stakes. 

For banks, a few key recommendations stand out: 

Know what incentives are really buying. Incentives and rewards directly motivated up to 27% of consumers to switch financial institutions in 2025. But acquiring a single new checking account is estimated to cost well over $200, and incentive offers can push that higher. A bigger offer may generate activity, but it does not automatically produce a profitable relationship. 

Watch the market, not just your own campaign. A growing number of institutions are using cash incentives, while others are turning to promotional interest rates and tiered-rate accounts for savings, money market, and CD products. ProSight data found an 18% increase in the number of institutions using cash incentives to attract new checking customers from 2023 to 2024. In 2025, 43% of financial institutions offered cash incentives on new checking accounts, with an average value of $277. Early 2026 offers generally clustered in the $100–$500 range, though some targeted offers reached into the thousands. 

Match the offer to the audience. Younger consumers are more likely to move. ProSight’s Banking Outlook: 2026 Trends survey found that 35% of Gen Zers and 32% of Millennials planned to change their primary financial services organization in the next six months, compared with 5% of Gen Xers and 2% of consumers in the Boomer+ group. That makes targeting essential. A costly offer aimed at the wrong segment can become expensive churn. 

Use the right channels. Online promotions matter: 59% of Gen X consumers and 51% of Millennials first learned about promotional offers through online channels, along with 43% of Boomer+ consumers and 38% of Gen Z consumers. Branches still matter, too, ranking second among channels generating new accounts from promotional offers across all four generational groups. 

Measure early value—and benchmark against peers. The report points to 90-day early value scoring as one way to assess whether an offer is working. Useful signals include payroll deposit continuity, mobile deposit use, peer-to-peer payment activity, NPS, and customer satisfaction. Industry-wide benchmarking can also help banks compare offer tiers, acquisition channels, customer segments, competitor cash incentives, fulfillment, and origination patterns against broader market trends. 

The takeaway: Incentive strategy should not be a race to the highest dollar amount. It should be a disciplined effort to connect offer design, channel, segment, engagement, and long-term value. As Tom Hoscheidt, ProSight’s managing director of research, says, “Higher-dollar offers and higher-than-typical market rates may succeed in generating initial attention, but implementing the program requires careful targeting to attract the right kind of new customer.”