Banks face competition for younger customers from T-Mobile, Wal-Mart and google.

• Position: MARKETING NEWS

NONTRADITIONAL BANKS like Wal-Mart or T-Mobile are much more appealing to customers under the age of 35 than they are to those over that age, according to survey results released recently by accenture, the consulting company.

The findings suggest that traditional banks may face stiff competition in the battle to win a coveted demographic segment: young people.

Younger bank customers are nearly twice as likely as older customers to consider switching to either an Internet bank or to a nontraditional bank, such as a retail, technology or telecommunications company that offers bank-like financial services, says Accenture, which has its headquarters in New York.

The survey found that 39 percent of customers 18 to 34 years old would consider switching to a branchless bank, compared with 29 percent of customers 35 to 55 and 16 percent of customers over 55.

The survey also showed that significant percentages of consumers--par-ticularly younger ones--would be open to banking with technology players such as Google, Amazon and Apple if the companies offered such services. "Tomorrow's consumer is coming of age with a very different perception of what a bank could be," says Wayne Busch, managing director of Accen-ture's North America Banking practice. "Those expectations could become profoundly disruptive to banks if nonbank entrants gain momentum and banks fail to adapt quickly."

Among consumers ages 18 to 34, 40 percent said they would consider...