Why Financial Wellness Starts with Account Aggregation

Consumers today aren’t managing just one financial account, they’re managing an entire financial ecosystem.

From checking and savings accounts to credit cards, payment apps, retirement funds, mortgages, and loans, financial lives are spread across multiple products, platforms, and institutions. While access to more financial tools should create more control, it often creates the opposite — fragmentation, confusion, and financial fatigue.

MX’s latest survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults found that financial health in 2026 is defined by tension — between optimism and stress, intention and execution, and awareness and clarity. Consumers want to improve their financial lives, but many struggle to fully understand where they stand.

The challenge for many lies more in a lack of visibility rather than a lack of engagement.

When consumers can clearly see and understand their complete financial picture, they are better equipped to make confident decisions, reduce stress, and move toward greater financial wellness. That’s where account aggregation becomes essential, and where financial providers have an opportunity to positively impact their customers. 

Financial Lives Are More Complex Than Consumers Realize

Despite actively attempting to manage their money, most consumers’ finances are spread across too many places to make that easy.

MX research found that the average consumer holds 3.6 financial accounts across multiple institutions. The most commonly held types of accounts by consumers are: 

• Checking accounts (86%)
• Savings accounts (72%)
• Credit cards (62%)
• Payment apps like Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App (43%) 

These accounts are now standard parts of everyday financial life, and adding retirement accounts, investments, mortgages, and loans, and the picture becomes even more complicated. 

But, even as nearly every financial provider offers some combination of these account types, consumers often hold accounts across multiple providers. While 76% of consumers identify a primary financial institution, only 25% say they keep all of their accounts there.

That means most people piece together their financial lives from managing separate apps, checking multiple balances, and trying to mentally connect disconnected information.

Even among engaged consumers, this creates friction. While 44% say they track every dollar and know exactly where their money goes, the majority of these consumers still rely on checking individual accounts (37%), spreadsheets (21%), or budgeting apps (16%) to stay organized.

Again, the effort from consumers is there, but often the tolls they need are not.

Financial Fatigue Creates Avoidance

When financial management feels overwhelming, stress follows.

More than half of consumers (51%) say money is their primary source of stress, and 49% say thinking about their finances makes them anxious. For many, that anxiety leads to avoidance rather than action.

Seventeen percent of consumers say they avoid checking their finances altogether.

Among those who avoid checking:

• 48% say looking at finances makes them anxious
• 34% worry they’ll get bad news
• 21% feel they lack control
• 19% lack confidence in their ability to manage finances

This is where fragmented finances transcend an annoyance to become a legitimate barrier to financial wellness.

MX Helps Bring Hidden Financial Lives to Light

At MX, account aggregation goes beyond convenience — it creates financial clarity.

While survey respondents report holding an average of 3.6 financial accounts, MX platform users link external accounts 3 accounts per user on average. But, the real insight comes from what happens next.

Through transfer analysis, MX identifies an average of 3 additional “discovered’ accounts per user from transfers to and from held accounts.

That means consumers often have more active financial relationships than they realize. These “hidden” accounts — forgotten savings accounts, old external checking accounts, secondary credit products, or disconnected payment platforms — can quietly contribute to financial stress and incomplete decision-making.

Without visibility into those accounts, consumers are often making financial decisions based on partial information.

MX helps surface those missing pieces.

By bringing external accounts into view and connecting fragmented financial data, MX gives users a more complete understanding of their financial lives. This enables stronger financial guidance, better decision-making, and a clearer path from financial stability to long-term progress.

And, when financial institutions can provide that clarity, they move beyond being account providers: they become trusted partners in financial wellness.