Dive Brief:

• Truist is prioritizing digital growth to improve its client experience, CEO Bill Rodgers said on a Q4 earnings call last week. 
• The bank reported improved digital engagement trends, with the number of Q4 mobile app users increasing 9% from the year prior. Mobile app growth has led to more transactions, Rogers said, and mobile now accounts for 62% of total bank transactions.
• “Our goal is to create seamless experiences for our clients by offering more self-service capabilities to enhance the overall client experience,” Rogers said.

Dive Insight:

Amid disappointing Q4 earnings, Truist had some bright spots across its digital customer experience.

Truist reported a $5.2 billion net loss in Q4, down from $1.6 billion in income in Q4 2022, as it wrote off $6.1 billion goodwill impairment. Rogers emphasized that the charge "has no impact on our liquidity, regulatory capital ratios, the payment of our common dividend, or our ability to do business and serve our clients."

The bank also laid off more than 1,000 employees as part of its efforts to improve efficiency and create new revenue opportunities.

Executives pointed to the growth in digital engagement as a positive development in Q4 and a sign of what was to come in 2024.

Rogers attributed growth in digital transactions primarily to the increase in Zelle transactions by clients that want to be able to quickly and efficiently make payments and move their money.

Though pleased with the growth in Zelle transactions, Truist is looking to expand digital engagement. 

“While this is certainly positive, Truist still has a meaningful opportunity to shift the transaction mix even more towards digital, specifically by leveraging our T3 strategy, which is the concept that touch and technology work together to create trust,” Rogers said.

Key to Truist’s push toward digital is Truist Assist. The AI-enhanced digital assistant, which it launched in 2022, has seen increasing adoption, with one-third of its total interactions happening in Q4 2023.

Customer satisfaction increased among its retail banking division to levels last seen prior to its merger in 2019, Truist said. BB&T and SunTrust merged in 2019 to form Truist.

“In consumer, I'm encouraged that customer satisfaction scores have returned to pre-merger levels,” Bill Rogers, chairman and CEO of Truist, said on the earnings call.

Truist added 59,000 new consumer accounts in 2023, the bank said.