Nearly a year after the launch of Roger, Citizens Bank of Edmond’s neobank for military recruits, the bank will launch a large-scale marketing effort in August led by Director Marcus Castilla, a former pharmaceutical executive and retired Army lieutenant colonel who is also the husband of CEO Jill Castilla. 

“We have a very aggressive sales and marketing plan,” Marcus Castilla told Banking Dive. “When we're looking at the target audience, it's those communities that support our newly enlisting soldiers,” including officers and noncommissioned officers. 

Roger, named after a military term that suggests a message has been received, rolled out in August 2023 amid a push to reach newly enlisted service members seeking access to bank accounts to fulfill direct deposit information requirements. 

The ecosystem of financial institutions serving military members consists of a few incumbents, such as Navy Federal Credit Union and USAA. Marcus Castilla, a 25-year military veteran who joined the bank in May, said Roger aims to take any friction out of sign-up by setting up incoming service members with a digital bank account in minutes. The marketing campaign will include social media outreach, advocacy from senior leadership and fostering relationships with military leaders.

The military “can't endorse any banks specifically, or financial institutions, so that is always a challenge,” he said. “Just providing that awareness, though, then starts that ball rolling to then provide understanding, establish connections.”

A key selling point is quick turnaround for account setup and the bank’s ability to accept multiple forms of identification, including tribal cards, military identification and green cards.

Marcus Castilla wouldn’t comment on customer numbers, but said the volume of accounts opened has consistently grown by at least 50% every month and the number of accounts opened weekly has doubled. The digital banking platform offers checking accounts with 2% annual percentage yield and savings accounts with 5% APY. It’s also partnering with other military-oriented community banks and credit unions to broaden its reach and provide recruits, a bank spokesperson said.

Digital community bank

A differentiator for Roger is its human approach to customer service, Marcus Castilla said. While the interface is digital-only, Roger provides service from human customer service agents. Roger is also open to customer feedback on product offerings as it looks to expand and modify its suite of products. For example, the bank decided to offer a 2% APY checking account three months after receiving comments from customers, Marcus Castilla said.

The objective of Roger is not to go head to head with incumbent institutions but to provide another option for banking services for new recruits, Marcus Castilla said. The company plans to grow the ensemble of products by partnering with other institutions.

“With Roger, we can make changes very quickly to the needs of the modern soldier, with modern banking for those service members, where it might be difficult for other institutions to do that,” he said. “Jill is in active conversations with other financial institutions who want to join in with Roger to help grow it.”

Ron Shevlin, chief research officer at Cornerstone Advisors, said niches present big opportunities for neobanks, provided the offerings can meet the needs of a particular market segment.

“What makes or breaks a niche strategy is identifying truly unique needs,” he said. “The military is a niche and there are clearly a lot of unique needs of people who are full-time military members … [Jill Castilla] recognized that new service members had certain challenges in getting banked by … the existing military focused financial institutions.”

The challenge for Roger will be on the execution side, he said.

Patrick McKenna, co-founder of Facet Wealth, said the power of a platform like Roger is its ability to help new military recruits start building a framework for managing their financial lives — a foundation that will help them through different life stages, including the eventual transition to civilian life. McKenna spent 11 years in the military.

If Roger can successfully crack customer acquisition among military members, it has a significant runway to grow through word-of-mouth recommendations.

“The military is the ultimate affinity group — military people listen to other military people,” McKenna said. Finding advocates “that have a voice that young military members are listening to seems like an opportunity, but also the challenge,” he added.