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Extraordinary innovation in banking isn't just about agentic commerce and virtual assistants. Even in 2026, it can be as simple as the meaningless 6/7 internet meme that's repurposed to nearly double CD sales at U.S. Bank, the fifth largest bank in America with more than $660 billion in assets.
"We took a product that's existed since the beginning of banking [a certificate of deposit] and brought a little bit of a modern twist to it," said Derik Farrar, U.S. Bank Head of Everyday Banking and Borrowing.The idea for the 6/7 CD took root came about at a bank offsite. A colleague had a t-shirt gun, but Farrar figured no one needed more company apparel. At the time, his teenagers were into the 6/7 meme which had gone viral on social media, and lots of the other execs had kids around the same age, so everyone got shirts riffing on 6/7. The shirts, which had absolutely nothing to do with U.S. Bank's strategy, were a huge hit – all the executives wanted one for their kids.
The chatter led to the idle observation that the bank could do a 3.67% CD for six or seven months. It sounded silly, but the team rolled it out within two weeks in late 2025 and CD sales then quickly spiked 70%.
The takeaway: "Give people something to talk about," Farrar said. The bank didn't have to create or even explain the phenomenon; it just borrowed from the zeitgeist.
His strategy boils down to offering the right product at the right moment when a customer is considering making a financial move, and helping them to feel good about it.
Another moment that U.S. Bank capitalized on was tax and bonus season. "It's when people are going to have an inflow," Farrar said. "So we wondered, is there something we can do to encourage a more constructive use of one-time windfalls?"So the bank partnered with Commonwealth, a nonprofit focused on financial security to reach clients before they got a windfall. By convincing customers to commit to doing something constructive with the funds before they receive them, like paying down debt or socking away savings, they were much more likely to follow through.
The efforts aren't always immediately additive to the bank's bottom line, but that wasn't the point, Farrar said.
"If we can help somebody make good financial decisions, we know that the next time they have a bigger ticket financial decision, we're way more likely to be a destination for them," he explained.
That instinct to show up at the right moment and make it easy is also behind U.S. Bank's partnership with Greenlight, the debit card and money app for kids. U.S. Bank was the first large bank to embed Greenlight directly inside its mobile app in 2024, rather than white-labeling it or building a competing product from scratch.
"Greenlight has invested all of this time and energy. They have the expertise," Farrar said. "We want to help our clients help their kids get more engaged with banking."
The product's appeal to Farrar is personal as much as strategic. He recalled a day when his wife forgot her purse and his daughter paid for something with her Greenlight card. "She felt like she was queen of the world," he recalled.
The partnership is a next-generation customer acquisition play, and it catches parents as they're trying to teach kids about money. Farrar said that Greenlight is one of the highest client-satisfaction products in banking. "Parents are happy. Kids love it – it makes them feel like adults."
