Winning the Next Generation: How Identity Powers Trust in Financial Services

The stakes: Why identity matters more than ever

Millennials and Gen Z are driving change in the financial services landscape. With an estimated $68 trillion set to transfer to these generations over the next decade, banks, credit unions, fintechs, and insurers must adapt to meet their evolving expectations.

Consider these trends:

• 68% of Millennials and 64% of Gen Z use mobile banking apps most often, highlighting the importance of seamless digital experiences (source: ABA, 2024)
• 61% of Millennials are already using AI tools to assist with financial tasks. (source: TD, 2025)
• 65% of Gen Z users trust fintech apps more than traditional banks, reflecting strong confidence in digital-first financial platforms (source: AV Technosys, 2025).
• 54% of Millennials and 60% of Gen Z identify top-notch security as a top factor when choosing a financial institution (source: Apiture, 2025)

To win and retain these customers, financial providers must deliver experiences that are secure, seamless, and personalized. Identity is central to this shift, enabling the kind of effortless, trusted access younger generations expect.

From personal experience, I’ve seen firsthand how digital convenience and effortless platform login shape the preferences of today’s younger generation. Providers that get identity right have a clear advantage in building long-term trust with the next generation of customers.

What’s driving change for Millennials and Gen Z?

• Demand for effortless digital experiences: They expect mobile-first, intuitive platforms that make managing and accessing money as easy as using their favorite apps.
• High expectations for seamless security: They want strong security that operates quietly in the background. Features like Face ID, passkeys, and biometrics are now expected. As AI tools and agents become more common in fraud prevention and customer service, trust in how these systems are governed is key.
• Skepticism toward traditional institutions: Having witnessed economic downturns and rapid change, these generations value transparency and are quick to switch to brands.
• Need for personalized financial guidance: Many are looking for tools and resources tailored to their personal financial needs, whether that means managing debt, exploring insurance options, or making investments. Increasingly, this guidance is delivered through AI-powered experiences, which raises the bar for how data is collected, protected, and used.
• Preference for purpose-driven brands: For some, their financial choices are shaped by ethics and social responsibility, influencing where and how they invest.

How Auth0 empowers financial services to meet next-gen demands

1. Frictionless customer journeys

• Universal Login: Easily manage authentication across multiple lines of business with just one login, reducing user fatigue and simplifying access.
• Passwordless Authentication: Options like biometrics and passkeys eliminate friction caused by forgotten passwords while maintaining high security and phishing resistance.
• Personalized Profiles: Enable personalized interactions and customized interfaces by leveraging customer data collected through progressive profiling.
• Advanced customization: Control every piece of the login experience and create pixel-perfect experiences that tailor every detail to match your brand.

2. Security that builds confidence

• Highly Regulated Identity (HRI): Auth0’s Financial-Grade Identity™ solution is designed for sensitive operations in regulated industries. HRI supports advanced security features for securing sensitive operations, including OpenID FAPI compliance and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) with transaction details dynamically linked. This helps ensure that high-risk actions, money transfers, digital payments, and more, are protected by the strictest standards.
• Adaptive multi-factor authentication: A flexible, extensible MFA policy that can help you protect your tenant from bad actors without increasing friction for real users.
• Attack protection: Detect and respond to account takeover attacks in real time like credential stuffing and brute force attacks, through a variety of options such as blocking traffic from certain IPs
• Centralized monitoring: Security Center offers real-time monitoring with observability tools like custom alerts and AI-powered remediation suggestions to help your team spot and address issues quickly.

3. Simplified compliance

• Regulatory alignment: Built-in support for standards like OpenID FAPI, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and GDPR.
• Granular access controls: Ensures sensitive data is only accessible to authorized users through precise access controls, like Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA), Tenant Access Control List (ACL), and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Comprehensive audit logs: Maintain clear and detailed records of identity-related events to support regulatory requirements.

4. Scalable, reliable performance

• Cloud-native infrastructure: Scale across millions of users, adapting as your business scales.
• Global reach: Seamlessly expand into new markets with consistent, secure identity management.
• High availability: 99.99% uptime ensures consistent access to services.

5. Seamless integrations for open banking

• Secure APIs: Enable safe, compliant connections with third-party apps and services.
• Developer tools: Accelerate innovation, bring new features to market faster, and help secure the identity and behavior of AI agents acting on behalf of users or systems.
• Consent management: Give users control over their data and privacy preferences to build trust and transparency.

The results: Building loyalty and trust for the future

Learn more, visit the Auth0 for Financial Services page or contact us for a demo.