For Cornerstone Advisors' 11th annual "What's Going On in Banking" study, the majority of credit union and bank executives said they are optimistic about the banking industry's prospects in 2026, with more than eight in 10 stating they are "very" or "somewhat" optimistic and just 1% stating they are "very" pessimistic.
The percentage of executives that are "very optimistic" about the coming year dropped to 9% from 12% in 2025, with those percentage points shifting to the "somewhat optimistic" category, according to the report.
"It's surprising that bank and credit union execs are as optimistic as they are," the report's author, Cornerstone Advisors Chief Research Officer Ron Shevlin, wrote. "The Conference Board's consumer sentiment index declined for much of 2025, reflecting an economy that has not improved as expected."
Reasons for the continued optimism include the interest rate environment and potential for ongoing rate cuts, reduced regulation, and a willingness by traditional financial institutions to adapt fintech solutions, according to executives surveyed for the report.
Released the last week of January, the report titled "What's Going On in Banking 2026: AI, Crypto, and Fraud: Oh My!" included a survey sample of 416 respondents – 46% from banks, 54% from credit unions and 89% of whom work for financial institutions in the $250 million to $50 billion asset range. More than seven in 10 respondents were C-level execs, with the rest serving as SVPs and vice presidents.
Despite their overall optimistic outlook, this year's survey respondents expressed an increased level of concern over competitive threats, with the percentage of executives citing big fintechs like PayPal and Square as threats to the industry rising from 64% in 2025 to 80% this year. What's more, challenger banks like Chime were flagged by 70% of survey respondents, up from 49% a year ago.
When asked if they see crypto providers such as Coinbase – a competitor category listed in the annual Cornerstone report for the first time this year – as a significant threat, only 29% of survey respondents said yes.
"I am surprised … that just 29% of respondents cited crypto providers as a threat," Shevlin wrote, going on to list statistics on the growing interest in crypto among consumers as well as moves being made by Coinbase and other crypto providers.
Both banks and credit unions saw jumps in their deployment of generative AI in the past year, with 49% of banks having deployed the technology compared to 16% in 2025, and 59% of credit unions having deployed Gen AI compared to 36% in 2025. Overall, the report said "banks are playing catch-up to the credit unions" in terms of their AI status, with 46% of credit unions having invested in or deployed chatbots/conversational AI versus 26% of banks, 41% of credit unions having invested in or deployed machine learning versus 29% of banks, and 17% of credit unions having invested in or deployed agentic AI versus 7% of banks.
Another area in which both banks and credit unions reportedly made big strides was data strategy, with the percentage of banks that consider their data strategy to be "very effective" nearly tripling from 6% to 17%, and the percentage of credit unions that consider their data strategy to be "very effective" more than doubling from 11% to 24%.
One new topic in Cornerstone's 2026 report was stablecoin, with the 2025 passing of the GENIUS Act leading many banks and credit unions to put the form of digital currency on their radar. Compared to banks, a slightly higher percentage of credit unions plan to invest in or implement stablecoins in 2026 (8% versus banks' 5%). But just 63% of credit union respondents said they have discussed stablecoin at the board or executive team level, versus 71% of banks.
In terms of top reasons to pursue stablecoin, deposit retention or generation, and competitive threats from fintechs or crypto-native firms topped the list for both banks and credit unions.
In another key report finding, Cornerstone revealed that "the overwhelming majority of banks and credit unions plan to increase their tech spend for 2026." Among banks, 84% plan an increase in their tech spend compared to 73% in 2025. Among credit unions, the overall percentage planning an increase was in line with banks, but 22% – twice as many as the year before – said they are expecting a "significantly" higher percentage change in their tech budget, according to the report.
"What's driving the increased tech spend? For both banks and credit unions, the IT infrastructure was the most frequently mentioned reason, cited by roughly two-thirds of all survey respondents. The digital/customer experience platform was the second-most listed reason," the report stated.
"What's Going On in Banking 2026: AI, Crypto, and Fraud: Oh My!" can be downloaded for free here.
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