New survey data show rapid adoption of electronic workflows alongside unresolved hurdles in system integration and regulatory alignment.

Community banks across the United States are accelerating their shift toward digital banking, particularly in lending, as they confront competitive pressures and evolving customer expectations, according to new survey results released by Wolters Kluwer.

Yet even as electronic workflows gain ground, unresolved challenges around technology integration and broader acceptance of digital assets continue to slow the industry’s full transformation.

The findings come from Wolters Kluwer’s 2025 Community Banking Digital Transformation online survey, which drew responses from 215 professionals out of a broader pool of more than 2,500 community bank employees nationwide. The results paint a picture of an industry in transition: increasingly digital in practice, but still constrained by legacy systems and regulatory uncertainty.

One of the clearest signals of momentum is the growing embrace of electronic signatures in lending. The survey found that 58% of community banks are either using or planning to use eSignatures for commercial real estate, multifamily and agricultural real estate loans—categories that have historically relied on paper-intensive processes.

That shift reflects a broader effort to streamline operations and improve borrower experience across high-value loan classes.

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Among institutions that have adopted eSignatures, DocuSign has emerged as the dominant platform, preferred by 59% of respondents, while Adobe and OneSpan together accounted for 30%. The concentration suggests that banks are coalescing around a small number of trusted digital providers as they modernize loan workflows.

Still, the path forward is uneven.

For banks that have not yet adopted eSignatures, the most frequently cited obstacle was not cost but system integration, identified by 10% of respondents. Cost concerns followed at 7%, but deeper hesitation emerged around the acceptance of broader electronic assets. Roughly 5% cited internal resource limitations, while nearly the same share pointed to limited secondary market acceptance. Another 7% cited uncertainty over acceptance by major regulatory bodies, including the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Federal Reserve.

Those concerns underscore a central tension in community banking’s digital evolution: while the technology to digitize lending exists, the surrounding infrastructure—regulatory, operational and market-based—has not fully caught up.

The survey also highlighted how digital transformation is intersecting with liquidity strategy. While 60% of respondents said they do not currently pledge commercial real estate, multifamily or agricultural real estate loans as collateral, nearly six in 10 of those institutions plan to begin doing so within the next two years. That anticipated shift suggests banks are preparing to pair digital loan documentation with more flexible collateral management.

Lending activity itself remains robust. Auto loans, mortgages and multifamily loans were the most frequently completed products, and more than half of respondents reported completing at least 100 loans annually. The professionals shaping these trends are largely in senior roles, with two-thirds holding director- or manager-level positions.

Taken together, the survey suggests that community banks are no longer debating whether to go digital, but how fast and how far. The next phase, it indicates, will depend less on intent and more on resolving the practical and regulatory barriers that stand between partial digitization and a fully digital banking ecosystem.