With a record number of retail bank customers using mobile apps during the past year, national banks saw increased customer satisfaction with these apps, while satisfaction with regional bank apps declined, according to a series of recent studies by J.D. Power.

Two-thirds of U.S. retail bank customers used their bank’s mobile app during the past year, which J.D. Power said in a statement was a record number of users and an increase of 7 percentage points from 2020. The studies also found that a record 41 percent of bank customers were classified as digital-only, and 31 percent used digital to resolve a problem.

“[M]obile has officially become the primary battlefield in the quest for banking and credit card customer satisfaction, and the nation’s largest retail banks are setting the pace for others to follow,” J.D. Power said in the statement.

The findings were based on four studies that tracked overall customer satisfaction with banking and credit card providers’ digital offerings: the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study, 2021 U.S. Online Banking Satisfaction Study, 2021 U.S. Credit Card Mobile App Satisfaction Study and 2021 U.S. Online Credit Card Satisfaction Study.

The studies included responses from 17,011 retail bank and credit card customers nationwide and were fielded in March and April 2021. The studies measured customer satisfaction with navigation, speed, visual appeal and information or content.

“The nation’s largest banks and credit card issuers have been continually innovating new digital solutions that support increasingly complex tasks, such as problem resolution, personalized alerts and profile management,” Jennifer White, senior consultant for banking and payment intelligence at J.D. Power, said in the statement. “This is driving increased engagement and significantly higher levels of satisfaction as the world shifts to digital. That’s a challenge for regional banks that have traditionally taken a simpler design approach and are now starting to see customer satisfaction scores fall as many customers required more sophisticated digital offerings in 2020 than in previous years.”

The combination of high customer volume and increased level of engagement with mobile apps helped large, national banks, J.D. Power said. These banks saw an 8-point increase on a 1,000-point scale in overall customer satisfaction with retail banking apps. But regional banks saw their mobile app satisfaction scores decrease 17 points.

The gap between national and regional banks was driven in part by increased levels of engagement with sophisticated digital offerings, including account management tools, personalized alerts, mobile check deposits and financial literacy tools, J.D. Power said.

“While smaller regional banks have focused on simple, easy-to-use digital tools, national banks are differentiating themselves with advanced features such as proactive guidance, real-time alerts and financial planning tools that have replaced previous in-person interactions,” J.D. Power said.

Customer satisfaction with bank websites over the past year was flat.

“Across the board, banks and credit card issuers have invested significantly in mobile apps, attracting a faster-growing and more tech-savvy base of customers, which exposes a potential disconnect between mobile app and website digital strategies,” J.D. Power said.

The studies also found that fintech challenger banks, including Chime, Acorns and Dave, have continued to grow significantly with streamlined digital tools, low barriers to entry and low fees.

Bank of America had the highest ranking for banking mobile app satisfaction among national banks with a score of 871, followed by Chase (870) and Capital One (864). The industry average for national banks was 860.

Bank of America tied with SunTrust for highest satisfaction among national banks for online banking, each scoring 852. BB&T and PNC ranked third with scores of 847. The national bank industry average was 839.

For customer satisfaction with mobile apps among regional banks, Santander Bank ranked third with a score of 852, behind Huntington Bank and BBVA. The industry average for regional banks was 834.

KeyBank ranked third among regional banks for satisfaction with online banking with a score of 835, behind Regions Bank and Fifth Third Bank. The industry average for online banking satisfaction among regional banks was 830.