Rapid changes in how customers use technology in their dealings with financial service providers pose a major challenge to existing banks. While not a revelation, it's a view that's been reinforced by a recent survey published by Roy Morgan Research.In testing the views of 50,000 Australians over the past year, the market research firm found that while less than one in five (18.7 per cent) of Australians could be classified as 'technology early adopters', this segment would be critical to the success of banks in the new digital environment - but would prove hard to hold onto."Early adopters are always first to purchase and use new technologies and generally set the trend for the broader market to follow, making it crucial for banks to understand how they are performing among this group," the market research firm said in a media release yesterday.According to Roy Morgan, the six banks with the highest proportions of early adopters among their customer base are all smaller or regional banks. Teachers Mutual Bank leads with 29.2 per cent of its customers being early adopters. The other two strongest performers are ING Direct (26.4 per cent of its customers) and Citibank (25.1 per cent). Of the four major banks, Westpac, ANZ and CBA were slightly above the population average while NAB's customers were slightly less likely than the banking industry average to be early adopters.Among the other banks there are a number of noticeably below average performers, with the regionally headquartered Bendigo Bank and Heritage Bank attracting less than their share of tech-focused customers - a possible reflection of the less connected customer base outside metro areas. The need to meet expectations of tech-loving customers is looming as a problem for all under-resourced banks and mutuals to solve."These [smaller] banks are likely to face challenges from the better resourced Big Four and the new fintech disrupters who are likely to be more nimble and experienced at adapting quickly to customer needs, thus posing a potential problem for all banks," said Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research. "The success of all players in financial services will not only depend on their ability to attract early adopters but will depend ultimately on moving to the 'mass market' stage and 'market maturity', where the majority of the population have transitioned to this new era in banking."That is, in order to keep this valuable market segment with its capacity to influence others, banks and mutuals may need to look at tie-ups with fintech players to gain access to technology and 'know how' rapidly- essentially trying to pick winners.