CORNERSTONE x DCI

Why some community banks grow and others stall.

Cornerstone Advisors studied what separates them — and kept arriving at the same place: the platform underneath the strategy. Uncaged is the result, commissioned by DCI.

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KEY FINDINGS

The competition already moved.

  • 56%

    of all new checking and payments accounts opened in 2025 went to Fintechs.

    Acquisition

  • 80%

    of bank executives now call big Fintechs a significant threat — up from 47% in 2023.

    Competition

  • 1 in 2

    digital account applications are abandoned once the process runs past three to five minutes.

    Friction

Source: Uncaged and Cornerstone Advisors’ What’s Going On in Banking 2026 study.

THE THESIS

The core is either an engine or a cage.

The trap is subtle. A core works fine for what a bank does today — the problem only shows up when the bank tries something new and the platform won’t move with it.

By then switching costs have compounded, contracts have renewed, and staying put feels easier than getting out. A growth-ready core can look identical to a legacy one on demo day. The report is about how to tell them apart before you sign.

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The core is either an enabler of growth or a cage trapping a bank from implementing a strategy.

Uncaged · Cornerstone Advisors

"The core has to be the R2D2 — talk to anything, reliable, resilient."

CEO, community bank — Texas

"Banks fail not because they lack technology, but because they lack strategy."

Chris Davis, Chief Operating Officer, DCI

INSIDE THE REPORT

Four layers sit above the core.

Each one drives a specific growth function — and each is only as capable as its connection to what’s underneath it.

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Acquisition

Digital account opening

Roughly 60% of prospective customers are lost to friction before an account is ever opened.

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Lending

Loan origination

Speed of decision is now part of the product — and most banks are still waiting on the core.

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Intelligence

Data and analytics

A platform running on nightly batch exports produces a post-mortem, not an insight.

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Experience

Digital banking

App satisfaction fell 24% from 2021 to 2024 despite heavy industry investment.

The growth stack doesn’t stand on its own. It stands on the core — and on a provider willing to be a real partner in making all of it work together.

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GET THE REPORT

Read it before your next vendor conversation.

The full 26-page study — findings, frameworks, and the question sets to bring into the room. No form, no gate.

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RESEARCH & AUTHORSHIP

For more than 20 years, Cornerstone Advisors has delivered gritty insights, bold strategies and data-driven solutions to build smarter banks, credit unions and fintechs.

COMMISSIONED BY

Developer of iCore360® core banking, iCoreGO® digital banking, and fintech processing — privately owned by its community bank clients.