Firms Race to Tell Clients Next Move

Every financial firm — whether it’s a bank, fintech, wealth platform, payments provider, or accounting software company — is chasing the same goal: earning the right to answer one question before anyone else does. What the customer should do next.

That is the central argument in a recent analysis from editor Sara Khairi. Information alone tells someone where they are, not where they should go. This distinction is the shift the industry is now seeing. Khairi’s analysis is part of Tearsheet’s ‘Letter from the Editor’ series, which features exclusive insight and opinion-driven analysis that links ideas, questions assumptions, and tracks shifts across both mature and emerging trends in financial services.

How financial firms used to compete

For most of their history, financial institutions competed by helping customers execute financial decisions. Banks originate loans after customers decide to borrow. Payment providers move money after customers decide to pay. Wealth platforms execute trades after investors decide to invest.

Success meant making those actions faster, cheaper, and more convenient. Digital banking accelerated that by making financial products available whenever and wherever customers needed them. The convenience of 24/7 access to accounts, transfers, and applications became the baseline expectation, yet it did not address the underlying difficulty of choosing the right financial move.

The problem became clearer as access improved. Making financial products more available and easier to use did not necessarily make financial decisions any easier. Customers still faced the same fundamental questions about what to do with their money. The industry spent years building better pipes for moving money, only to discover that the harder problem was figuring out which pipe to use in the first place. That is the real competitive frontier now.

What customers actually need

The insight driving this shift is that customers do not just want faster transactions. They want guidance on what transaction to make. A bank that can tell a customer, “You should refinance now,” before the customer even asks, holds a different kind of advantage than one that simply processes the refinance quickly.

This changes the nature of competition. It is no longer just about execution speed or convenience. It is about prediction, timing, and trust. The firm that answers “what should I do next?” most accurately stands to capture more of the customer’s financial life. The ability to anticipate a customer’s needs — based on data about their spending, savings, market conditions, and life events — becomes a more durable differentiator than a slightly faster transfer or a lower fee.

Not every firm will get there. The analysis suggests that the winners will be those that figure out how to turn data into actionable advice, not just better dashboards. That requires a different set of capabilities than most financial institutions have historically invested in. It demands expertise in data science, behavioral economics, and the kind of trust that only comes from consistently delivering timely, personalized recommendations. Firms that merely present information in a prettier interface will fall short; the goal is to interpret that information and prescribe a next step.

The question now is which firms can make that transition. The ones that do will not just process decisions. They will shape them. Financial firms are increasingly focusing on clients’ next move to stay competitive. This analysis, part of the ‘Letter from the Editor’ series, is now PRO-only content — available exclusively to subscribers who want to never miss these insights from editor Sara Khairi.