Original Research for Banks and Fintechs: How to Earn Press Coverage
Most banks and fintechs approach the media with the same three assets: a product launch, a funding round and a senior hire. Journalists receive hundreds of these every week, and most of them go nowhere. The institutions that appear in the business pages month after month are doing something different. They are
Our view is simple. For a financial institution, original research is the most dependable route to earned media that exists today. It is not a nice-to-have alongside the press release; it should replace much of it. This article sets out why, what makes research newsworthy, how to design a study a journalist will actually use, and where most firms get it wrong.
Why the Press Release Has Stopped Working for Financial Brands
The press release still has a place, but it no longer earns attention on its own. A launch announcement tells a reporter what your firm did. It rarely tells their readers anything about their own lives, money or industry. That is the gap. Journalists are paid to inform an audience, not to publicise a company, and a release that serves only the sender gets deleted.
The numbers from newsrooms make this plain. In Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026 report, 86% of journalists said pitches do inspire stories, but 88% delete pitches that miss their beat. The same survey ranked credible sources and original data among the most valuable things a pitch can contain. Cision's 2026 State of the Media report found that 47% of journalists want more data or research from communications teams, the top answer in that category (PRSA).
Newsrooms are smaller, deadlines are tighter, and reporters have less time to gather their own evidence. A firm that hands them clean, credible, relevant data is not asking for a favour. It is doing part of their job for them.
Why Banks and Fintechs Hold an Unfair Advantage
Few industries sit on data as rich, as timely or as closely watched as financial services. Every card payment, salary deposit, remittance, loan application and savings transfer says something about how people and businesses are behaving right now. Official statistics arrive weeks or months later. A bank or payments firm can often see the same trend in near real time.
The largest institutions understood this years ago. The JPMorgan Chase Institute and the Bank of America Institute both publish regular analysis built on anonymised, aggregated customer data, and both are cited routinely by economists and the financial press. Their research does more for the parent brand's standing than any campaign could, because it makes the bank a source rather than a subject.
The opportunity is not limited to global banks. A regional lender can track how small businesses manage cash flow. A remittance fintech can show how money moves along a corridor such as the UAE to India. A buy-now-pay-later provider can show how household spending shifts before and after holidays. A digital wealth platform can report how first-time investors behave in a falling market. Each of these is a story that only that firm can tell, and that exclusivity is what earns the coverage.
What Makes Financial Research Newsworthy
Not all data is news. A finding earns coverage when it passes four tests, and most corporate research fails at least two of them.
The first test is relevance to the reader, not the firm. "Our app grew 40% this year" is a company update. "Freelancers in the UAE now wait an average of 52 days to be paid" is a story, because it tells thousands of readers something about their own situation. The second test is surprise. Research that confirms what everyone already assumes gives an editor nothing to headline. The strongest findings either contradict a common belief or put a hard number on something people have only sensed. The third test is timing. Data that speaks to a live debate, such as interest rate moves, a new tax rule, a cost-of-living squeeze or a regulatory change, is far easier to place than data released into silence. The fourth test is credibility. A journalist must be able to defend the number to their editor, which means a clear sample, a clear method and no obvious commercial spin.
The most common failure is the self-serving study: research designed backwards from a product, where every finding conveniently points to the sponsor as the answer. Reporters see through it immediately. Our rule with clients is that the research should be worth publishing even if the firm's name were removed from it. If it is not, it is advertising, and it will be treated as such.
Designing a Study Journalists Will Use
Good research for the press starts with the headline, not the questionnaire. Before any data is pulled or any survey is written, the team should draft the three or four headlines it hopes the study could support, and then ask honestly whether a business editor would run them. This discipline forces the research to answer a question the market actually cares about, and it prevents the familiar outcome of a 40-page report with no single finding worth reporting.
Firms have three broad sources to draw on. Proprietary transaction or platform data is the most powerful, because no competitor or newsroom can replicate it, but it requires careful anonymisation and aggregation. Commissioned surveys of customers, business owners or the general public are flexible and fast, and they work well for attitudes and intentions that transaction data cannot show. Analysis of public data, such as central bank releases, company filings or trade statistics, is the most accessible route for smaller firms and can still produce original insight if the angle is sharp. The strongest programmes combine two of these, for example pairing what customers say in a survey with what they actually do in the data.
Method matters more than many marketing teams expect. A credible survey needs a sample large enough to segment, a clear definition of who was asked, stated fieldwork dates and questions that do not lead the respondent. Journalists should not have to chase basic details such as sample size, fielding dates or respondent criteria, and they are increasingly wary of research that uses synthetic or AI-modelled responses (PRSA). Publish a short methodology note with every release. It costs nothing and removes the most common reason a reporter walks away.
Consistency compounds. A one-off report earns a single news cycle. A recurring index, released on the same schedule every quarter or every month, earns a standing place in the news calendar. Reporters begin to expect it, quote it, and compare each edition with the last. This is how a firm moves from occasional coverage to being the default source on a subject, the same principle we describe in How a Tax Firm Can Become the Go-To Name for One Industry.
The Regulatory Line Financial Institutions Cannot Cross
Banks and fintechs carry an obligation that most other research publishers do not. Customer data is regulated, and its misuse is a reputational risk far larger than any coverage gain. In the UAE, the federal Personal Data Protection Law, the Central Bank's consumer protection framework and, for firms in the free zones, the DIFC and ADGM data protection regimes all shape what can be used and how. Firms elsewhere face equivalent rules, from GDPR in Europe to India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act.
In practice, this means four controls. Data should be fully aggregated so that no individual or small group can be identified. Findings should be reviewed by compliance and legal before any external release. Commentary should avoid anything that could read as investment advice or a forward-looking promise about returns. And the firm should be clear in its methodology note about what the data covers and what it does not. These controls do not weaken the research. They are what make a journalist, and a regulator, comfortable with it.
"A press release tells a journalist what your firm did. Original research tells their readers something about their own money. Only one of those gets published." — FOLD Research
Sitting on data but unsure what the story is? Book a free 30-minute research-angle session and we will show you three angles your own data could support.
Turning Findings into Coverage
Research earns coverage only when it is packaged for the way journalists work. That means one lead finding stated in a single sentence, three to five supporting numbers, two or three clean charts the newsroom can reuse, a named spokesperson who can explain the data in plain language, and the full report available on request. The pitch itself should be short. Muck Rack's 2026 survey found journalists prefer one-to-one email pitches under 200 words, sent before noon, with a single timely follow-up .
Offering an exclusive to one well-chosen outlet before the wider release often produces a stronger first story, which other titles then follow. Tailoring the angle by publication also matters. The same dataset might yield a consumer-money story for a personal finance desk, an SME story for a business title and a policy story for an economics reporter. One study can and should produce several distinct pitches.
The research should also live permanently on the firm's own website, not only in a PDF attachment. A dedicated, well-structured research page attracts links from every outlet that cites it, which strengthens search visibility long after the news cycle ends. This is where research and SEO meet, and why we recommend organizing studies into a hub, as set out in Pillar Pages and Topic Clusters: The SEO Structure Professional Firms Need. There is a newer reason too. AI assistants increasingly answer financial questions by citing earned media and data-rich sources, and Muck Rack's analysis of AI citations found that earned media accounted for about a quarter of all links cited by the major tools. Research that gets reported today is research that gets quoted by machines tomorrow.
Finally, the study should feed the firm's own channels for months. Each finding can become a LinkedIn post, a client newsletter item, a short video or a webinar. Firms weighing which of those formats earns most attention will find a useful comparison in Tax Webinars vs Articles: Which Brings More Clients?, and the newsletter case is covered in Should Your Accounting Firm Send a Monthly Client Newsletter?How to Measure Whether It Worked
Counting articles is the weakest measure of success. A more useful scorecard looks at the quality of the outlets that covered the research, whether the firm was named and linked rather than merely paraphrased, how many journalists returned for comment on later stories, the number of new websites linking to the research page, and whether branded search and inbound enquiries rose in the weeks after release. Over a year, the clearest signal is unprompted contact: reporters calling the firm for a view on a subject because they now see it as the authority. That is the real return on research, and it is worth more than any single headline.
The brand effect reaches beyond the press. Prospective customers, partners and investors increasingly search a firm before they engage with it. What they find shapes their judgement long before a meeting, a dynamic we examine in What Founders Google Before Taking Investment (and What They Find About You). A record of cited research is among the most persuasive things they can find.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does original research for PR cost a bank or fintech?
The range is wide. Analysis of a firm's own anonymised data, or of public datasets, can be done with a small team and modest budget. A commissioned national survey costs more, mainly in fieldwork. The larger cost is usually internal time for data access and compliance review, so this should be planned from the start.
Yes, by going narrow. A large bank covers the whole economy; a focused fintech can own one subject, such as freelancer payments, cross-border remittances or first-time investors. Depth on one topic is more valuable to a specialist reporter than breadth across many, as we argue in How a Small Consulting Firm Can Look Bigger and More Credible Online.
How often should research be published?
One flagship study a year, supported by a lighter recurring index each quarter, is a sound starting rhythm for most mid-sized firms. Regularity matters more than volume.
Is customer data safe to use in public research?
Only when it is fully aggregated and anonymized, reviewed by compliance, and used within the limits of local data protection law. Handled properly, it is the most valuable research asset a financial firm owns. Handled carelessly, it is a liability.
Conclusion: Become the Source, Not the Subject
Financial institutions spend heavily to be noticed and comparatively little to be cited. The firms that earn steady, credible press coverage have reversed that balance. They treat their data as a public asset, publish it with discipline, and give journalists something their readers need. The press release announces. Research informs. In a crowded market, the institution that informs is the one that gets remembered.
FOLD Research works with banks, fintechs and financial institutions to find the story inside their data, design studies that stand up to scrutiny, and turn findings into coverage, search visibility and enquiries. If you want to see what your own data could support, book a free 30-minute research-angle session. We will come back with three story angles drawn from what your firm already knows.
Contact us at info@foldresearch.com, call or WhatsApp +971 50 295 5420, or book an intro call.