Lenders that get the digital experience right drive business outcomes on three fronts: converting at originations, reducing friction during servicing and expanding the relationship over time. The lending digital experience spans the full borrower lifecycle, from the moment a prospect begins shopping for financing, to the monthly payment interaction, to the cross-sell offer that expands the relationship. Firms that succeed tend to convert more prospects during origination, offer seamless digital experiences that foster retention and turn loan relationships into broader financial relationships.
Yet there is plenty of room for improvement across the industry. Of the prior auto loan holders Corporate Insight surveyed, 61% switched lenders for their most recent loan. That number should worry any lender that treats servicing as a set-and-forget operation, because the borrowers most likely to walk are the ones every firm is chasing: Gen Z respondents rate digital experience quality as 12 times more important than Boomers do when selecting a lender (24% vs. 2%). CI’s new report, The Lending Digital Experience: Where Firms Win and Lose Borrower Relationships, draws on our Lending Monitor research, a 2024 mortgage origination study and a 2025 auto loan holder survey to map where firms convert, retain and expand borrower relationships, and where they quietly lose them.
What borrowers want from lenders
Borrowers weigh trust and reputation nearly as heavily as rates themselves. Among high-income mortgage households, 69% cite trust and firm reputation as a selection factor, matching the 69% who cite rates. Unsurprisingly, payments are the highest-stakes touchpoint: 72% of auto loan holders rate payment history as “very” or “extremely” important, yet payment archive lengths across the industry range from one month to life-of-account. The pattern that emerges across all five themes in the report is consistent. Firms invest heavily in the moments that acquire a borrower and underinvest in the moments that keep one. Across the borrower lifecycle, three stages define the relationship:
Most lenders tend to build strong payment flows and then go silent. Only 25% of auto lenders send a payment posted alert, and none of the firms CI reviewed offer alert consolidation, email format preferences or frequency controls. The auto and mortgage experiences also diverge within the same institutions: Bank of America and Wells Fargo send mortgage payment posted alerts but offer no auto equivalent, while Chase does the reverse. A borrower holding both products at one of these firms sees two different engagement standards from a single brand. Loan-specific alerts covering escrow, tax payments, loan-to-value milestones and payoff dates remain the most underutilized retention tool in the category.
Lending is inherently low-engagement after closing, so alerts are the primary mechanism for maintaining the relationship between payments. Most lenders have built payment-adjacent alerts. The differentiation opportunity lies in mortgage- and auto-specific event alerts that no competitor has broadly adopted.
Gen Z borrowers are reshaping lending expectations and are harder to satisfy
More than half of Boomers (51%) say they are satisfied with their auto lender’s digital features and wish for nothing more. Only 11% of Gen Z borrowers say the same. Gen Z wishlists center on refinancing tools (34%), better mobile app functionality (32%) and educational resources (26%). This cohort grew up on fintech-grade mobile interfaces and benchmarks traditional lenders against them, so web-only servicing risks accelerating attrition. Gen Z borrowers also favor national banks (25%) over auto manufacturers (12%) for their loans, a reversal of older generations’ pattern that creates an acquisition opening for banks with strong digital lending platforms.
Most firms treat servicing as set-and-forget, missing expansion opportunities
The report closes with four priorities for lending firms:
- Invest in payment and alert experiences
- Prioritize the servicing features borrowers value most
- Embed expansion offers in the dashboard rather than relying on outbound email
- Close the auto/mortgage capability difference before competitors do
The third deserves particular attention. Zero auto lenders in our coverage set offer LTV-threshold or financial milestone alerts that could trigger a refinancing conversation, even though users tell CI they welcome cross-sell placements when the offers are relevant. Firms already hold the data to make those offers meaningful. The ones that act on it first will turn loan relationships into broader financial relationships while competitors keep sending untargeted email.
For the full analysis, including firm-by-firm payment experience ratings and best practice examples from Bank of America, Rocket Mortgage, Chase and others, contact CI here.
Justin Suter is the director of thought leadership at Corporate Insight.