More than half of millennials are happy to switch to or already have a digital-only bank, according to new research.

A new poll from financial advisory organisation deVere Group found that 59 per cent of the 550 clients surveyed that were born between 1980 and 1996, already only ever use digital banking services or are planning to make the switch this year.

The respondents are based in North America, the UK, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, Australasia and Latin America.

“This is more bad news for traditional banks, which seem to have been in a perpetual game of ‘catch-up’ in recent years amid evolving customer expectations, regulatory requirements and tech advances,” said Nigel Green, deVere Group chief executive and founder.

“The poll’s findings are a big deal for old-school banks. Why? Two reasons: first, millennials because they’re the fastest-growing cohort of clients; and second, because they are becoming the beneficiaries of the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

The company said that, according to some estimates, $68 trillion in wealth is expected to be passed down from the baby boomers to their children and other heirs over the next couple of decades.

“Millennials have grown up on technology. They are ‘digital natives,’ explained Green.“They’ve been influenced by the enormous surge in tech as they came into adulthood - which came around the same time of the global financial crash that hit in 2008.

He added: “Against this backdrop, they seemingly became comfortable using FinTech to help them access, manage and use their money rather than using a traditional bank.”

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