Report: "Sorry Banks, Millennials Hate You"

In a dramatic new survey by Viacom’s brand research division Scratch, the mid-20s generation known as “millennials” have made their views about banks and the banking industry unambiguously clear: They don’t like banks. Period.

The three-year study of 10,000 millennials, the “Millennial Disruption Index,” showed a general sense of skepticism and hostility towards banks.

According to the report, 33% of millennials believe they won’t need a bank at all in coming years. All four leading banks rank in the “ten least loved brands” by millennials. A full 70% of those polled believe that payments will be “totally different” than today’s system in a mere 5 years, and they believe this change will be “seismic.” Nearly half expect this change to come from tech startups.

Speaking with Fast Company, Scratch executive vice president Ross Martin explained the results:

As consumers, millennials have been slow to accumulate wealth. They have huge debt. They’re facing unprecedented underemployment. They’ve been relatively unaddressed as a generation by banks. All of a sudden, you see purchasing power by millennials growing to over $1.3 trillion.”

As millennials become an increasingly powerful economic force, their view of banking has massive implications for alternative currencies and payments. The Fast Company report suggests that the likely winners of the coming battle for the wallets of millennial customers are non-bank options like PayPal, Square and, tellingly, Bitcoin.

No banks? Totally different payment systems? Tech-driven? It certainly sounds like the millennials are describing Bitcoin.