How banks can utilize CDP

25. 03. 2025.

Let’s get this out of the way, banks aren’t exactly starving for data. Between core banking systems, CRM tools, mobile apps, KYC protocols, and marketing platforms, there’s no shortage of information. The real question is does any of it talk to each other? 

That’s where CDPs, or Customer Data Platforms, step in. Not with magic. Not with some utopian tech promise. But with a grounded proposition. To bring your customer data into one place, make sense of it, and then do something smart with it. 

Sounds straightforward. But in the banking world, “straightforward” rarely is. 

So, what does a CDP actually do for a bank? 

A CDP doesn’t just collect customer data, it stitches it into a single profile. Every interaction across channels, every transaction, every churn risk signal, every uptick in engagement, all lands in one record. That’s the difference between guessing and knowing. 

Take Raiffeisen Bank International, for example. After integrating a CDP, they saw a 25% lift in engagement on personalized product offers. Not because they threw more ads at people. But because they knew when not to. 

Or ING, which used real-time behavioral data to trigger alerts when a customer showed early signs of financial distress. Not to sell, but to support with proactive outreach and adaptive credit solutions. That shift reduced customer attrition by 12%. 

Then there’s Erste Bank. 

They had a segment of credit card customers who hadn’t used their cards in over a year. Marketing assumed these accounts were dormant, possibly lost for good. Campaigns were sent, but conversion rates flatlined below 1%. 

Once their CDP linked app activity with card behavior, a new story emerged. These “inactive” users weren’t inactive at all they had just switched to using digital wallets like Apple Pay. The card transactions were happening, but weren’t being recognized as such. And many were still logging into the app regularly. 

So instead of recycling the same tired “reactivation” emails, Erste triggered a simple in-app journey: connect your digital wallet and start earning cashback. The result? 31% reactivation in just six weeks. 

“We weren’t solving for abandonment. We were solving for invisibility.”
– Erste Bank, internal CDP performance report, Q4 2023 

Let’s be honest, traditional segmentation doesn’t cut it anymore 

You can’t serve a millennial freelancer in Belgrade the same way you treat a pensioner in Novi Sad just because they both have checking accounts. Legacy segmentation models were built for systems, not people. 

With a CDP, you stop talking to “segments” and start listening to individuals. 

You notice that Luka clicks on mortgage calculators every Sunday but never submits a form. That Jelena opens every savings promo email but never clicks through. That Nemanja, who hasn’t visited a branch in five years, just updated his phone number and location. 

None of that is guesswork. It’s right there, across touchpoints, if you’re willing to stop treating data like a warehouse and start treating it like a conversation. 

If you’re still wondering why this matters, you might want to start with Understanding customer data because what you think you know about your users is probably wrong. 

Okay, what’s the business case? 

Let’s talk numbers, real ones. 

According to McKinsey, banks that personalize customer interactions across channels can see revenue gains of up to 20%. But, those gains aren’t possible with fragmented data or stitched-together dashboards. They come when systems stop guessing and start responding. 

Here’s what that looks like in practice: 

• Loan Cross-Selling: A CDP recognizes behavioral patterns signaling mortgage interest (calculator use, FAQ views, branch visits), and automatically feeds that into a loan officer’s system. Close rates go up. So do trust scores. 

• Fraud Detection Fine-Tuned: Instead of blasting alerts based on generic thresholds, a CDP can help train AI models on real customer patterns, flagging anomalies that actually matter. 

• Omnichannel Support That Doesn’t Feel Like Ping-Pong: When a customer messages your WhatsApp support, visits your website, and then calls the hotline, all within an hour, your CDP makes sure the rep doesn’t ask for their account number three times. That kind of fluidity is the difference between retention and rage-quitting. 

The real win? Reducing churn before it starts 

Banks love talking about acquisition. But churn is the quieter killer. 

With a CDP, churn no longer shows up as a quarterly surprise, it leaves footprints. You see app login frequency dropping. Branch visits disappear. Response times lag. Suddenly, the checking account gets emptied. 

And if your system can catch that signal early? You don’t send a desperate win-back email. You intervene with something meaningful a better rate, a personal call, a “we noticed” message that actually sounds human. 

“Banks that treat customer data like a relationship, not a repository, will define the next era of loyalty.” – Financial Services Loyalty Trends, 2023 

The data privacy elephant in the room 

Let’s not sugarcoat it, banks walk a compliance tightrope. GDPR, local regulations, internal risk teams… all of it matters. But CDPs aren’t about collecting more data. They’re about respecting the data you already have. 

The better you organize, govern, and track it, the less likely you are to run into trouble. In fact, a well-structured CDP can reduce privacy risks by centralizing permissions, consent records, and audit trails. 

Think of it this way: the messier your data stack, the bigger your legal exposure. Clean data isn’t just good for business, it’s good for your lawyers. 

This isn’t a plug-and-play tool 

Let’s not pretend that throwing a CDP into your bank’s tech stack will solve decades of legacy issues overnight. It won’t. What it will do is give you a fighting chance to outgrow those issues, with context, continuity, and control over your customer data. 

Banks that win with CDPs aren’t the ones with the fanciest dashboards. They’re the ones who treat the platform like a living part of their business, not a bolt-on widget. 

Your customers already told you what they want. They told you through click paths, card swipes, drop-offs, mobile habits, and support tickets. The question isn’t whether the signal is there. It’s whether you’re ready to hear it. 

CDPs don’t give banks more data. They help banks finally use the data they already have intelligently, consistently, and with a human touch. 

Want to stop guessing what your customers want and start acting on it?
Let’s talk about what a real CDP rollout looks like for your bank. Contact Things Solver and build something that actually works.