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At the end of 2023, there were about 70,000 bank branches in the U.S., down noticeably from the nearly 83,000 in 2012. In other words, the global financial crisis didn’t result in a spate of branch closures.
Still, the effects of digitization in financial services are comparable to what’s seen in the e-commerce space. As online retail has blossomed, store closures have surged. So it’s reasonable to expect that as tech-savvy younger generations come of age and as baby boomers pass on, the number of bank branches will continue decreasing. It’d be more surprising if that didn’t happen.
Indeed, when it comes to financial services, be it banking or investing, becoming increasing digital and tech-centric, there are benefits. Customers like the convenience of being able to check balances and make trades on their phones. Conversely, no one really thinks a trip to a bank branch is fun. Worse yet, if a customer has a problem of some significance, the employees at the branch are just going to instruct the client to call customer service.
So with that in mind, it’s not surprising that as financial services digitization has increased, customer service has decreased. A new survey confirms as much.
Bad, Bad Brokers
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI®) Finance Study 2025 evaluated customer satisfaction across banks, credit unions, financial advisors, and online investments. Online brokerage firms not named Fidelity scored particularly poorly.
“Charles Schwab (down 1%) and Vanguard (down 1%) finish at 78 and 77, respectively. Edward Jones stumbles 3% to 76, followed by E*Trade (Morgan Stanley), down 5% to 75, and Robinhood, down 4% to 74,” according to the study.
Those percentages represent year-over-year declines in customer satisfaction. Bank of America really takes the cake. In a bad way.
“Merrill Edge (Bank of America) drops a staggering 9% — the largest decline in the finance study — to finish in last place with a score of 69. Bank of America’s decision in 2024 to merge all of its mobile apps (Bank of America, Merrill Edge, MyMerrill, Bank of America Private Bank, and Benefits OnLine) into a single app may have played a serious role in this deterioration,” notes ACSI.
Fidelity was the only internet broker in the ACSI study that saw its customer satisfaction rankings improve and that’s pertinent because…
Fidelity Helping Advisors Improve Satisfaction
Of the quartet of aforementioned financial services segments, only advisors notched improvement in the customer satisfaction survey. So kudos to you, advisors. What follows isn’t an endorsement of one custodial platform over another, but the ACSI confirms Fidelity’s customer satisfaction translates to the advisory space.
“As with online investment, Fidelity sets the tone, surging 5% to an ACSI score of 83 — to share the top spot with the aggregate of all other smaller advisory firms (unchanged),” adds ACSI. “Fidelity shines for competitiveness and clarity of fees and efforts to provide lower-cost options. It also improves across all customer experience metrics, including advisor trust and confidence, mobile options, and investment performance.”
Conversely, Charles Schwab, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo also saw advisor satisfaction scores decline in the ACSI survey.