Annual Review Preview: Growth, Engagement and Relationship Trends

JUNE 2026 | Early insights from the data as we prepare this year's Annual Reviews

Over the past few weeks, we've been analysing customer trends across the mutual banking sector in preparation for our upcoming Annual Reviews.

One of the most interesting findings is that while every organisation we reviewed grew customer numbers over the past 12 months, far fewer were able to strengthen the quality of those relationships. Only around one in four improved customer engagement, and just half increased the proportion of customers who consider them their main financial institution.

It's a timely reminder that growth and relationship strength don't always move together.

At Spark, we've long believed that the most valuable customer relationships are built through consistent engagement, relevant products and a genuine understanding of customer needs. Acquiring new customers is important, but helping those customers become more engaged and valuable over time is where the real opportunity lies.

Our Annual Reviews, available from mid-July, provide participating mutual banks with a detailed view of how they're tracking against their own historical performance and broader industry trends.

We'll be exploring trends across customer growth, engagement, customer value, product ownership, acquisition and retention, and transaction behaviour to help identify where the biggest opportunities may exist.

We look forward to sharing the results and discussing what they mean for your organisation.

Curious about how your organisation stacks up against industry trends? Reach out to the Spark team to discuss benchmarking and performance insights.