Digital Banking Awards 2026
Canstar's 2026 Digital Banking Awards
Canstar releases its
2026 Digital Banking Awards.
28 May, 2026
About the Digital Banking Awards
Digital banking is how you interact with your bank online, through a mobile app, online banking via desktop, or both. This award assesses what tools and features are available across those platforms. Canstar’s Digital Banking Awards recognise the banks offering the strongest range of digital tools and features to customers, from everyday banking and payments through to security and support.
Our Digital Banking Award recognises traditional banks, while our Customer-Owned Digital Banking Award recognises customer-owned banks, like mutual institutions, credit unions, and building societies. We consider the two separately in order to ensure a level playing field for the Award. We score each platform on over 200 features covering functionality, and use independent research panels to gauge customer satisfaction.
Numbers crunched by Canstar Researchers
- 29 Banks Assessed
- 48 Customer-Owned Banks Assessed
- 2 Awards Presented
- 2 Award Winning Providers
View the Digital Banking Award Methodology →
View all Star Ratings and Award results →
About the winners
Commonwealth Bank
Digital Banking – Bank of the Year Award
Commonwealth Bank has won the Digital Banking Award for the 17th consecutive year. With over 9 million active app users, CBA’s digital platform covers a broad range of everyday banking needs, such as real-time tracking, PayID, digital card access, cardless ATM transactions, AI-driven insights and 24/7 support through the Ceba virtual assistant.
In particular, CommBank stood out in the area of transfers and the transaction tools on offer.
Beyond Bank
Digital Banking – Customer-Owned Bank of the Year Award
Beyond Bank has won the Customer-Owned Digital Banking Award for the 12th consecutive year. At the time of our assessment, Beyond Bank performed particularly strongly in banking assistance like account maintenance and payments and transactions, with budgeting tools and account information capabilities among the strongest in the market.
About this year’s awards
The digital banking landscape is constantly evolving and changing, and so the criteria used for our awards also evolve to keep up. For example, we now include features like PayID and biometric login as part of our baseline assessment.
For the 2026 Award, we considered several new features for the first time. Among the new features we considered were anomaly-prevention measures that banks use to keep customers’ accounts safe, like the use of location and network signals and behavioural biometrics.
In addition to this, our 2026 Awards were the first in which we considered cardless ATM capabilities, in-app dispute resolution processes and automated subscription tracking.
As for the broader banking landscape in Australia, this past year has seen new banking brands entering the market and others leaving. This year, we considered AMP’s mobile-only AMP GO for the first time, alongside the departure of In1bank, which formally exited the banking market in early 2026. In1bank completed a full return of customer deposits in March before APRA formally revoked its ADI licence.
In the customer-owned space, three new entrants joined the assessment: Credit Union SA, Gateway Bank, and Southern Cross Credit Union. Illawarra Credit Union was removed following its brand retirement and merger with Community First Bank on 1 April 2026. We also saw some consolidation among customer-owned banks this year, with Teachers Mutual Bank Limited and Australian Mutual Bank executing their merger on 1 May. People First Bank went live with its newly-unified digital platform on 5 May, and G&C Mutual’s brand retirement is scheduled for 11 June as it completes its merger with Unity Bank.
“Digital banking functionality continuously evolves, meaning that features which once represented market leadership eventually become standard baseline expectations. To maintain a meaningful comparison for consumers, our methodology baseline shifts annually to reflect these rising standards”
How we assessed value
Every platform is reviewed across both its mobile app and online banking experience. We consider more than 200 individual online banking features, scored across five categories.
When it comes to features, we consider:
- Everyday account management, including the daily essentials, like how easily you can check your balances, use built-in budgeting tools, and look up product details.
- Payments and transactions, covering aspects like sending money, paying bills and contactless functionality.
- Tools for researching and applying for products
- Availability of customer support channels.
- Security features, including fraud detection, login protection and data privacy.
We also use independent research panels to measure customer satisfaction, evaluating their experience of digital banking platforms based on:
- Ease of login
- Transfers and payments
- Service availability
- Customer service
- Privacy and security
- Ease of communication
- Budgeting features
Who we looked at
To be eligible, a bank must be an active authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) and submit an audited feature log to Canstar for assessment. Banks and customer-owned banks are assessed separately to ensure like-for-like comparison. This year covered 29 banks and 48 customer-owned banks.
What this award is and isn’t
What this award is:
- An assessment of the range and accessibility of tools, features, and functionality available across banks and customer-owned banks’ digital platforms.
- A level playing field, with banks and customer-owned banks assessed separately.
What it isn’t:
- Personal financial advice or a recommendation to use a specific bank.
- An assessment of a bank’s products (rates, fees, account features). This award focuses on the digital platform, not the underlying banking products.
- A guarantee that a platform’s features or experience will remain the same. Digital banking and our methodology continuously evolve.
Does Canstar rate other products?
Insurance
Accounts and Transfers
About Canstar
Canstar also has insights and information about financial products and services generally. You can find out about topics such as: interest rates, buy now pay later (BNPL), business products and tax. You may also be interested in discovering more about calculators and resources, such as our rate checker and free credit score tool, to help you with your financial decision-making.
FAQs
About: Jeremy Cooper-Williams, Research Analyst
Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) and a Bachelor of Property, University of Auckland
Jeremy Cooper-Williams joined Canstar’s Ratings Team as a Research Analyst in March 2026. With a natural curiosity for how the world works, Jeremy was drawn to economics and finance early on, and now channels that into evaluating banking and financial products to help determine Canstar’s Star Ratings and product awards.
He enjoys the collaborative nature of the Ratings Team and the opportunity to uncover insights that help everyday Australians make smarter financial decisions.