A 2025 Benchmark of Digital Credit Cards Onboarding in Germany

Executive Summary

In 2023, Arkwright examined nearly two hundred onboarding journeys across European financial institutions and found that Germany ranked below the European average in critical aspects of digital onboarding. Over the same period, neobanks have been aggressively expanding their digital offerings and customer demand for modern, seamless online banking experiences continues to rise, creating mounting pressure for traditional issuers to improve. This benchmarking analysis focuses on how to optimise digital onboarding journeys for the financial services organisations in the German market, drawing on Arkwright’s experience across more than 25 countries. The study assesses the progress made since 2023, identifies current gaps and outlines priority areas for banks and specialised credit card issuers seeking to remain competitive in an increasingly digitised environment.

The results show that Germany has inched ahead of the European benchmark with an average overall score of around 60% yet still trails the Nordic digital leaders by almost five percentage points. The biggest gap lies in the Degree of Digitalisation: while Nordic providers routinely employ API‑based data extraction, real‑time identity checks and address lookup services, many German flows still rely on manual inputs and post‑hoc verification. Across all categories, inconsistency across the scores can be seen. Website‑performance scores range from below 40% to above 95%, exposing fragile tech stacks and uneven optimisation efforts.

A closer look at provider segments reveals diverging trajectories. Specialised credit‑card issuers outperform universal banks on Trust and Website Performance, benefiting from single‑product focus and crystal‑clear brand promises. Banking institutions, by contrast, have made the largest leap in Digitalisation, after investing in API integrations and additional identification options. Yet their user journeys remain complex, signalling that technology upgrades have not yet translated into friction‑free flows.

There are several clear opportunities for improvement. German institutions need to commit to an API‑first architecture that unifies data services, embed trust signals throughout the journey and design processes that tolerate user interruption. Session persistence, save‑and‑resume capability and proactive support is still absent in more than 70% of German journeys, representing low‑effort, high‑impact fixes that could boost conversion quickly. Implementing key enhancements is crucial to improving the performance and usability of onboarding journeys.

By implementing those measures, Arkwright project experience proves that an uplift of five to ten percent in credit card onboarding is attainable. Banking institutions and credit‑card specialists can diminish the digitalisation deficit and lift customer conversion and readiness for forthcoming regulatory waves, while delivering the frictionless experiences that modern consumers now expect.

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