Millennials have long been portrayed as poles apart from other generations served by the financial industry, but new research from Jacksonville, Florida-based financial software company FIS suggests some millennials actually aren't that different from Gen Xers when it comes to banking habits and preferences.

The survey, conducted in December 2016, asked 8,000 millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers in eight countries to rank the importance of key parts of the banking experience and how well their banks reflected those attributes. It found that both older millennials (age 26-36) and Gen Xers (age 37-51) in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and other countries are more likely to use regional banks as their primary financial institutions, both handle about 75% of their banking activities online or via mobile and both share — in the same order — the same 10 most important financial institution attributes.

This combined demographic of older millennials and Gen Xers, dubbed "Gen MX," is now in the driver's seat of the global economy, according to FIS COO of Banking and Payments Anthony Jabbour.