Frost Bank's Digital Account Opening Transformation

Frost Bank has been a fixture of Texas banking since 1868. With core values of integrity, caring, and excellence, the San Antonio-based institution has built a culture that goes beyond the typical corporate mission statement to a difference felt by employees and customers alike. For 17 consecutive years, Frost has earned the highest ranking for retail banking customer satisfaction in Texas according to the J.D. Power U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, a distinction that reflects the bank’s persistent focus on the customer experience.

That commitment is exactly what drove Frost to take a hard look at its digital account opening channel. The bank considered meeting customers where they are at any stage and on any device the table stakes. Doing so with a seamless experience that also reflected the Frost core values? That required the right partner.

Katie Keating, EVP and Director of Consumer Products and Strategy, set the tone: “We like to say we’re relentless about optimizing the customer experience. We knew we needed to take a look at whether our digital account opening was the best possible end-to-end experience and whether we were making the best first impression with potential customers, and we knew it was time for a change.”

Problem: A Friction-Filled Legacy Platform Holding Frost Back

Frost had been through a phased rollout of Blend across its lending portfolio—Home Equity in 2020, Mortgage in 2022, Consumer Loans in 2023—but deposit account opening remained with a different vendor.

Brad Bremer, SVP of Consumer Deposit Products, said, “Our online account opening experience needed to keep pace with our vision. As Frost continues to grow, we were looking for a partner focused on continuous innovation…one that consistently adds long-term value to the customer experience and scales alongside us.”

The technology problems had become not just perceived, but tangible. Applications got stuck mid-process, causing customers to abandon before completing. Adam Hunnicutt, AVP of Consumer Products and Strategy, put it plainly: “It was slow, sometimes failed completely. It just wasn’t the experience we wanted to provide.”

The operational burden on Frost’s staff was equally unsustainable. At least 15% of applications required manual review, meaning a human had to pause the process, pull the application, review it, and call the customer. The lag between application submission and outreach created friction and uncertainty that was at risk for damaging the customer relationship before it even began.

“Customer growth is our number one metric for success, and the digital account opening channel is incredibly important for us to meet our strategic goals,” said Bremer.

The combination of poor customer experience, stalled innovation, and mounting operational costs made clear that the status quo was not an option.

A lot of applications were going to manual review. There was a gap in time between those moments that caused friction in that relationship. We had about 15% of applications that went to manual review prior to moving to Blend, and we got that down to 3%.

Brad Bremer

SVP of Consumer Deposit Products at Frost Bank

Solution: One Platform to Bolster the Entire Relationship

Frost’s decision to move deposit account opening to Blend was built on proven ground. Four years of successful lending deployments had established Blend as a trusted partner; one that shared Frost’s commitment to continuous improvement. “As we rolled out Blend on our lending products, we saw really great customer feedback and success,” Keating said. “That first foray on the lending side gave us the confidence to move over to deposits as well.”

The strategic vision was bigger than any single product. Randy Miranda, SVP of Consumer Lending Operations, described what Frost was building, explaining, “Blend allows us to focus on the customer experience from end to end—allowing the customer to take that application online, on their terms, and experience a seamless transition from start to finish.”

Bremer tied the opportunity to Frost’s objectives. “One of the most important things about having both lending and deposits in Blend is that we’re driving the customer to be primary with the bank,” Bremer said. “Having all of this under one ‘hood’ allows us to cross-sell and support a customer who’s starting with a loan with the deposits offering they need. It’s like a welcoming front door to capture that full relationship in one experience.”

For Keating, the operational flexibility of a unified platform was just as compelling. “Operating on a single platform allows us to be flexible in the experience we provide,” she said. “If we see an opportunity to optimize or fine-tune the process, this platform gives us line of sight throughout the entire flow and the entire journey.”

As we rolled out Blend on other products in our lending portfolio, we saw really great customer feedback and success, and felt confident that Blend was a partner who could deliver on that experience for our deposit customers as well.

Katie Keating

EVP and Director of Consumer Products and Strategy at Frost Bank

Outcome: Measurable Gains Across Every Dimension

The results since launching Blend for deposit account opening have been noteworthy, but the most striking improvement is conversion. For Frost, the rate of applications that start and successfully complete leapt from 50% to 80% with Blend. 

Manual review has also been dramatically reduced. The share of applications requiring human intervention fell from 15% to 3%—a reduction that translates directly to fewer employee hours spent on administrative rework and faster decisioning for customers. “We’re seeing a lot more customers get immediate answers on whether or not they’re approved,” Bremer noted. 

Speed has also improved substantially. The average time to open an account now runs six to seven minutes—a metric Frost didn’t have meaningful visibility into before. “Benchmarking time-to-open has been really helpful,” said Hunnicutt. “And we intend to set the industry standard.”

What’s more, customer satisfaction scores rose from 90% to 94% within the first few months of the Blend deposit launch. For a bank that’s won J.D. Power’s top Texas ranking 17 consecutive times, moving the needle on CSAT is not a given. It reflects a genuine improvement in the user experience.

Bremer described the broader strategic impact. “Blend gives us confidence that we can continue to drive new customers to the online channel because we know they will have a great experience,” he said. “We are assured by data and feedback that the majority of them now get decisions quickly. That confidence means we can start to use this for marketing because we’re seeing so much success in what’s getting through.”

Our conversion rate from a started application to completed went from 50% to 80%. That’s a crucial metric for us.

Brad Bremer

SVP of Consumer Deposit Products at Frost Bank

Looking ahead: Mining Reliable Data to Maintain Continued Improvement

For Frost, the Blend partnership has become foundational to the bank’s continued customer engagement success and satisfaction. With a seamless, unified platform spanning lending and deposits, the bank now has end-to-end visibility into the digital customer journey and the tools to make a difference.

“A lot of companies today are drowning in data but starving for insights,” said Keating. “Having a digital onboarding platform that gives us insight into the journey from start to finish is going to help us derive takeaways that will make the customer experience better and better over time.”

The cross-sell opportunity is also just beginning to come into focus. As more customers open both lending and deposit products through a single digital front door, Frost can move toward banking the full relationship, including checking accounts, savings, and loans, without friction or redundant steps.

And with the performance data to back it up, the digital channel is no longer just a complement to the branch network. It’s a growth engine and one that Frost is only starting to accelerate.

Related customer stories

Challenges and solutions

BMO Harris Bank

is leveraging Blend to pioneer a new standard in digital lending

is leveraging Blend to pioneer a new standard in digital lending

Read the full story about BMO Harris Bank

Mortgage Suite

Landmark Credit Union

is working with Blend to provide efficient and friendly interactions in the digital age.

is working with Blend to provide efficient and friendly interactions in the digital age.

Read the full story about Landmark Credit Union

Platform and services

BOKF

+ Blend: Rapid innovation, powered by collaboration

+ Blend: Rapid innovation, powered by collaboration

Read the full story about BOKF

Ready to reimagine the future of banking?

Sign up for a personalized demo